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Horrible Hanna? Tropical Storm Delays Atlantis Rollout to Launch Pad
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GOES Infra-red (IR) Image of Hanna/NASA & NOAA
At Kennedy Space Center, workers and STS-125 management officials are watching the weather as Space Shuttle Atlantis remainds stranded in the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB). Although ready to head to Launch Pad 39A, the spaceship must now be moved in between violent storms.
Atlantis, whose on-paper launch date is October 8, has already lost several days flight preparation time. Tropical Storm Fay closed the launch facility and did some minor exterior damage to the sprawling Florida base.
During the complex mating of the orbiter to its stack--the external fuel tank and the solid rocket boosters--a guidepin jammed. The component is part of an assembly that links a vital fuel line between the tank and the spaceship's main engines.
Problem fixed, Atlantis is ready to make the 3.4-mile journey to the launch pad. However, forecasts show Tropical Storm Hanna headed for the eastern Atlantic seaboard, with a strong possibility of a sidesweep of the KSC area.
Meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center say that Hanna could make landfall anywhere from Miami to the outer banks of North Carolina. And, the storm might intensify and become a hurricane again.
Lurking to the southeast is Tropical Storm Ike, now headed towards the Bahamas. Ike's now more than 1,000 miles east of the Leeward Islands and following a tried-and-true hurricane development pattern.
Although NASA officials have said that their flight scheduling includes several contingency days to account for unanticipated glitches, the target launch date of October 8 may eventually have to be pushed back a bit. Right now, it looks like Oct. 10 or 11 could be the new launch date, pending the remaining work--and dodging tropical storms.
Atlantis and astronauts Scott Altman (Commander), Gregory "Ray-Jay" Johnson (Pilot) and Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld, Drew Feustal, Mike Massimino, Mike Good and Megan McArthur are flying the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. They'll install six new gyroscopes, new batteries, and six new science instruments.
The parade of tropical storms can impact launch dates in many ways, even if a storm misses the KSC area. Fay caused a delay in the delivery of the tools astronauts will use in the work on Hubble. That has led to a delay in the installation of the payload in Atlantis' cargo bay at the pad.
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