CAPE CANAVERAL - Two
planned rocket launches, short shuttle launch windows, traffic congestion at
the International Space Station and two meteor showers could conspire to push
space shuttle Atlantis' planned November flight into the new
year.
But for now, NASA is
staying focused on Nov. 12 as the targeted launch date and prepping the orbiter
for its move to Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building on Tuesday.
Here's the situation:
Atlantis and six astronauts
are slated
to blast off at 4:04 p.m. Nov. 12, setting sail on a mission to haul large
spare parts to the outpost.
NASA, however, will have
just eight days to get the shuttle aloft.
The sun angle on the
station from Nov. 21 through Dec. 5 will be such that the outpost could not
generate enough electricity, or dispel enough heat, to support a docked
shuttle.
A delay beyond Nov. 20 would
push launch to a weeklong window that opens Dec. 6. NASA in that case would
need to launch Atlantis by Dec. 13 to finish its mission and depart the station
in advance of the Dec. 23 arrival of a Russian
crew transport craft.
Bottom line: If Atlantis still
is on the ground Dec. 14, its launch would be delayed until around Jan. 7. NASA
would avoid flying during the New Year's holiday because the shuttle's
computers are not designed to handle the year-end rollover.
Two other factors are in
play:
A United
Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is scheduled to loft a commercial communications
satellite on Nov. 14. Then a Delta 4 rocket is set to blast off Nov. 18.
The U.S. Air Force Eastern
Range provides tracking and public safety services for all launches from Cape
Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center. But 24 to 48 hours are required to reset
systems between launches.
So NASA might have to stand
down Atlantis if the Nov. 12 launch is delayed.
The annual Leonids meteor shower will peak on Nov. 17; the Geminids will peak Dec. 13 and Dec. 14.
The showers will produce
hundreds of meteoroids per hour. NASA wouldn't launch a shuttle into a cosmic
shooting gallery, so managers likely would forego any launch opportunity at the
peak of either shower.
NASA in August 1993 delayed
a Discovery launch attempt by a day to avoid the peak of an extra active Perseid meteor shower.
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