NASA's
space operations chief has delayed until March a decision on whether a mission
to repair the Hubble Space Telescope will tie up one or both space shuttle
launch pads, a decision that could impact the scheduled July test flight for
the Ares I-X launch vehicle.
For now, the Ares I-X
flight, a suborbital test of the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle NASA is
building to launch the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle starting in 2015, remains
on schedule for a July launch, Jeff Hanley, Constellation program manager at
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston said Jan. 23. Ares I-X program managers
previously said they would need to know
by February when one of the shuttle launch pads would be turned over to
them so they could begin three or four months of modifications necessary for
the Ares I-X launch.
Both launch
pads currently are reserved for the May repair mission to the
Hubble Space Telescope: one for the shuttle going to Hubble and the
other to launch a second shuttle on a rescue mission if needed. Bill Gerstenmaier,
NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said he would not decide
until March whether the mission could be conducted using one launch pad. At
issue is whether the standby shuttle could be moved to the launch pad and
lift off soon enough to rescue the Hubble repair crew. Safety requirements
enacted following the 2003 space
shuttle Columbia disaster call for keeping a second shuttle on standby to
mount a rescue of any shuttle crew are bound for a destination other than the
international space station.
While
NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate continues to deliberate
over releasing the second pad to Ares I-X prior to the Hubble mission,
NASA is continuing to make some early pad modifications that would not
preclude a space shuttle launch, Hanley said.
NASA's
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., announced Jan. 22 that it was ready to
ship prototypes of Orion and its launch abort system to Kennedy Space
Center in Florida for integration with the rest of the Ares I-X vehicle.
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