Discovery Foam Repair Snags Plan To Move Atlantis In Early
NASA may be facing yet another hurdle in its plan to launch two
more shuttle flights before the end of 2007... and it has nothing
to do with insulating foam.
Florida Today reports ongoing repairs to a set of huge metal
doors on the Vehicle Assembly Building -- rusted out in places from
years of exposure to the elements along Florida's Space Coast --
has kept NASA from utilizing both bays in the VAB to mate shuttles
with external fuel tanks and solid-rocket boosters, in preparation
for launch.
NASA has worked with only one bay for the past few years, as
repairs were conducted. The 45-story-high doors were supposed to be
replaced last year... but work is way behind schedule.
"No good deed goes unpunished," shuttle program manager Wayne
Hale said. "The agency for 40 years neglected the Vehicle Assembly
Building down in Florida. We have a magnificent structure that's
going to be used by subsequent programs and we let it face the
ocean breeze and all of that salt air. The mechanisms there have
corroded and rusted to the point where we were concerned we might
not be able to open the doors to get the launch vehicle out and
that's clearly unacceptable."
Repairs are now due to be wrapped up by November 1. That's good
news for future shuttle launches, but it poses a problem for the
last shuttle mission scheduled for this year. Atlantis is due to
head to the International Space Station in early December.
NASA had planned to move Discovery out of the active assembly
bay this month -- one month earlier than necessary for its planned
October 23 launch -- so Atlantis could move into position. There's
a problem with that plan, though: Discovery is still there, and
will be for some time as engineers repair foam covering believed
to have caused damage during the launch of Endeavour
last month (so, okay, this has a little something to do with the
foam.)
Plans now call for Discovery to head to the pad at the end of
this month... which cuts Atlantis' time in the VAB a bit close for
comfort.
"For the last two years, we've been working with only one high
bay and it's been a real constraint. We have to plan our work
carefully and make sure that we do what we need to do," Hale
said.
Also complicating things is the tight launch window for
Atlantis' mission to deliver the ESA's Columbus science lab to the
ISS. Due to the position of the station relative to the sun, if
Atlantis doesn't launch by December 13, it will have to wait until
next year.