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ISS Robot Arm Problem May Delay Shuttle Missions
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 02:00 pm ET
21 March 2002
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A recently discovered problem with the International Space Station's robot arm likely will delay a planned May shuttle mission by several weeks. The technical difficulty could also pose a risk to the on-time launch of the next shuttle scheduled to fly April 4. One of seven joints on the Canadian-built arm isn't working properly, but a change to the computer software used to control the arm should temporarily take care of the problem for the upcoming April 4 mission with Atlantis, said Mike Suffredini, a NASA station manager. But because future missions to the station will heavily rely on the Canadarm2 for continuing the outpost's assembly, program officials want to permanently fix the arm by launching a replacement joint and sending two astronauts out on a spacewalk to install the hardware. NASA officials are considering adding that work to the mission now scheduled for May 6, and space station director Tommy Holloway said Thursday the chances were "pretty high" that would happen. "If we make that decision, and the work is pretty well completed at this point, it would result in the flight slipping to probably May 31," Holloway said. A decision is expected within the next few days, he said. Meanwhile, launch of Atlantis on April 4 still isn't a sure thing, although officials are optimistic they will complete all the work they need to do to get the new robot arm software delivered, tested and sent up to the station within the next two weeks. Suffredini said the software patch is to be delivered to Mission Control in Houston from Canada some time next week, uplinked to the space station on March 29 and then tested by the Expedition Four crew using the Canadarm2 on April 1. "Based on the preliminary testing of the patch to date we believe that will all go successfully," Suffredini said, but "today we hold that as a constraint to launch."
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