NASA still aims to move
Endeavour out to Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B this week, and it
appears that the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Ike in Houston will not delay
the agency's next two shuttle missions, officials said Monday.
In a widely distributed
e-mail, NASA shuttle program manager John Shannon said employees whose lives
have been disrupted
by Ike should take care of their families first.
Many who evacuated in
advance of the monster storm have not been able to return to their homes
in communities that surround Johnson Space Center, which escaped major damage, but
will remain closed to all but recovery crews this week.
The weeklong closure will
stall astronaut and flight controller training for the Oct. 10 launch of
Atlantis on a Hubble
Space Telescope servicing mission and the Nov. 12 launch of Endeavour on an
International Space Station outfitting flight.
But NASA says the dates
nonetheless remain achievable.
"We don't have any
data that says we should have to delay the launches," NASA spokesman Mike
Curie said.
Recovery crews at the home
of NASA's Mission Control Center and astronaut corps restored commercial power
Sunday, and have been inspecting buildings to identify and prioritize any
repairs that might be necessary.
The roof at Mission Control
was damaged during the storm, and heavy rains swamped areas of the center,
particularly those closest to Clear Lake, a body of water that connects with
Galveston Bay three miles from Johnson Space Center.
Surrounding communities -
particularly Seabrook - struggled to restore power, as well as sewer and phone
service.
Back at Kennedy Space
Center, technicians in the Vehicle Assembly Building began preparations for the
planned
rollout of Endeavour at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
The 4.2-mile move to pad
39B is expected to take six to eight hours.
Endeavour will be on
standby to fly a rescue mission should Atlantis - which is on
nearby pad 39A - sustains critical damage during its Hubble servicing
mission.
The Atlantis astronauts
would not be able to seek safe haven on the space station because it is in a
different orbit, and the shuttle would not have enough fuel to get there.
The rollout will mark the
first time since 2001 - and only the 16th time in history - that vehicles have
been on the pads simultaneously.
A practice countdown for
the Atlantis astronauts remained scheduled for early next week, and a readiness
review for the mission remained scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.
A firm launch date is to be
set at the end of the two-day meeting.
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