NASA Won't Launch Fall Shuttle Missions Early

NASA mission managers decided Thursday not to push for earlier launch dates for two space shuttle missions set to blast off this fall.

The shuttle Atlantis will remain on track for a planned Oct. 8 launch to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope while its sister ship Endeavour will continue toward a Nov. 10 liftoff to the International Space Station, NASA spokesperson Kyle Herring told SPACE.com.

Mission managers were considering moving both flights up a few days in a bid to extend the launch window for Endeavour?s November flight to resupply the space station?s three-man crew. The window for that flight closes Nov. 25 due to lighting and heating concerns at the space station.

But after a month-long look at launch preparations for both Atlantis and Endeavour, mission managers opted to stay with the initial launch targets during a meeting today, Herring said from NASA?s Johnson Space Center in Houston. An official launch date for Atlantis will be set during its STS-125 mission Flight Readiness Review on Sept. 22.

?Even when the program asked for this assessment to move the launch dates up, we knew it was a tight schedule to try and do it,? Herring said.

Atlantis' STS-125 crew, commanded by veteran spaceflyer Scott Altman, is preparing for an 11-day service call on the Hubble Space Telescope to extend its operations through at least 2013. The new instruments, replacement parts and other equipment to be installed are still being delivered to NASA?s Kennedy Space Center spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and while they could be in place for an Oct. 7 launch attempt, mission managers decided to keep the original Oct. 8 target, Herring said.

Meanwhile, Endeavour?s STS-126 mission led by shuttle commander Chris Ferguson will ferry a new crewmember, supplies and vital life support equipment to the space station to help prime the orbital laboratory for a larger, six-person crew.

Herring said the decision not to move up Endeavour?s November launch will allow Ferguson and his crew to maintain an even training schedule, rather than an overloaded one. The astronauts lost some training time earlier this month when the Johnson Space Center shut down for two days as a precaution against then-Tropical Storm Eduoard, he added.

?When it all came together today, it was fairly obvious that where the launch dates are is where they?ll stay as the target dates,? Herring said.

NASA?s STS-125 mission to Hubble will mark the fifth and final servicing flight to the orbital observatory since its April 1990 launch. Because Hubble flies in a higher orbit and in a different inclination than the space station, Altman and his crew will not be able to take refuge at the station if Atlantis suffers critical heat shield damage.

As a safety measure, NASA is priming Endeavour to double as a rescue ship and will have the vehicle atop a second shuttle launch pad when Atlantis lifts off. Preparations for both vehicles are going smoothly, with Atlantis set to roll out of its hangar to meet its external tank and twin solid rocket boosters next week before heading to Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

?It?s going pretty well,? said Candrea Thomas, a NASA spokesperson at the Florida spaceport.

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