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Space Shuttle Atlantis Rollout to Launch Pad Set for Thursday; Watch Live on NASA TV
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KSC workers show support for Atlantis rollout/NASA
NASA officials announced this afternoon that they'll try to get Space Shuttle Atlantis rolled out to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday. The only issue remaining: any possible effects of Tropical Storm Hanna. Plaqued by having to hopscotch between tropical storms, the closing of KSC for Tropical Storm Fay, and equipment problems, the STS-125 mission now has only one contigency day left in its pre-flight schedule. The chances are good that the launch date will be moved from October 8 to October 10 or 11. Tropical Storm Hanna, which has been menacing the U.S. eastern seaboard, now seems to be drifting further east. KSC managers will meet at 5:30 a.m. Thursday to take a last-minute look at the weather. Atlantis and its stack will ride the ponderous six-million-pound crawler-transported along a special roadway, called a crawlerway..Atlantis sits atop the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP), which the crawler returns to retrieve after launch.
The delays have increased pressure on the remainder of the 2008 launch schedule. Space Shuttle Endeavour is targeted to blast off to the International Space Station(ISS) on Nov. 10.
In addition to the normal stresses of managing two launches in such a short period of time, mission managers are also facing constraints from the physics of our solar system. Endeavour has to perform its mission at the ISS before Nov. 25, when the sun angle on the station changes enough to degrade solar power supporting power and heat dispersion.
NASA will broadcast the rollout live via NASA TV.
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