This story was updated at 1:18 p.m. EST
NASA mission managers discussing the planned
March 15 launch of the space
shuttle Atlantis have added one more topic to their standard preflight
meeting: hail damage to the orbiter's external tank.
A strong
thunderstorm passed over NASA's Pad 39A launch site [image]
at Florida's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral late Monday, showering
Atlantis's foam-covered fuel tank with hail, NASA officials said [image].
"The remote
cameras indicate some damage to the external tank, but a full assessment on the
is just getting underway due to the pad being closed for fuel loading," NASA
officials said in a statement, which stated that the storm occurred at about 5:00
p.m. EST (2200 GMT) Monday. "The two-day Flight
Readiness Review at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will continue in parallel with
Kennedy Ground Operations assessment of the external tank damage."
A NASA press briefing to discuss the shuttle fuel tank hail damage is scheduled for no earlier than 4:00 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) today and will be broadcast live on NASA TV.
The
Flight Readiness Review (FRR) is a traditional two-day meeting that precedes
every NASA shuttle launch to determine whether a mission is ready to fly. The
review board will be briefed on the impact of the Atlantis fuel tank hail
damage by mid-day Wednesday, NASA officials said.
Atlantis
is currently slated to launch at about 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043 GMT) March 15 on NASA's
STS-117 construction mission to International Space
Station (ISS). Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Rick
Sturckow, Atlantis' STS-117
astronauts will deliver two new starboard ISS solar arrays and retract
an older solar wing during their planned 11-day mission.
Atlantis itself, as well as its
payload, are protected from weather by the shroud-like Rotating Service
Structure at Pad 39A.
Hail damage
has prompted shuttle fuel tank repairs in the past.
NASA
postponed its planned May 1999 launch of the shuttle Discovery's STS-96 mission
due to hail damage that etched 650 divots in the 15-story fuel tank's foam
insulation. The shuttle was rolled back to NASA's cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building
for repairs.
Woodpeckers
damaged Discovery's shuttle fuel tank in 1995 during the STS-70 mission, also
prompting repairs.
NASA must
launch Atlantis during the March window or else wait until late April to allow the
planned 10-day ISS crew change
between the station's Expedition
14 and Expedition
15 astronauts.
The
Expedition 15 crew is slated
to launch on April 7.
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