CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - Despite two delay-filled days, the shuttle Atlantis is
safely inside NASA's massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) after a brief hop forward
in its long road toward space.
Shuttle engineers
rolled the Atlantis orbiter into the VAB, where it will be mated to its
external tank-solid rocket booster launch stack for NASA's STS-121 mission, at
about 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 GMT) Friday.
Landing
gear glitches plagued Atlantis' rollover from its Orbiter Processing Facility
(OPF) to the VAB.
Initially
slated to rollover in the morning hours of July 20, Atlantis did not start
moving until about 9:41 a.m. EDT (1341 GMT) Friday, and five minutes later
breached the outer doors of its OPF hangar.
On July 20,
engineers found a faulty tire pressure sensor
connection between Atlantis' front left tire and the orbiter, prompting
engineers to change out the tire, which NASA officials said was an easier fix
than repairing the connector itself. Additional problems retracting
Atlantis landing gear, which must be tucked inside the orbiter during rollover
operations, also delayed the event, NASA officials added.
"This is
great," a NASA shuttle worker said as the orbiter rolled past photographers,
reporters and excited NASA employees. "Especially after all this delay."
NASA has
tapped Atlantis as its second shuttle to launch since the 2003 Columbia
disaster. Its STS-121 mission, set to launch in September with astronaut Steven
Lindsey in command, is the final test flight to shakedown new orbiter
inspection tools and methods, as well as external tank modifications, before
the space agency resumes major construction missions to complete the
International Space Station (ISS).
The mission
will follow the STS-114 spaceflight of Discovery, which is slated to launch at
10:39 a.m. EDT (1439 GMT) on July 26. Atlantis is expected to serve as a rescue
ship for the STS-114 astronauts in the unlikely event that Discovery is
severely damaged during flight and its crew forced to take refuge aboard the
ISS.
"Everything
you've done to Discovery, we've done to Atlantis too," Scott Thurston,
Atlantis' vehicle manager, told SPACE.com before the rollover, adding
that his crew had less time to perform the work since all new hardware and
procedures went to Discovery first. "We've basically had less time, because everybody
focused on getting those deliveries to Discovery...it's a big accomplishment."
The orbiter
will hold updated cameras and sports a new, 50-foot (15-meter) boom tipped with
cameras and laser sensors to probe vulnerable heat-resistant areas for damage
during flight. During a spacewalk, an STS-121 astronaut will ride the end of
the boom, which will be attached to the tip of Atlantis' robotic arm, to test
its dynamics with such a load.
"We've got
a special relationship with these vehicles that we see every day," Thurston
said. "Everybody's got a different thing that they hold very dear."
advertisement
