Damaged Space Shuttle and ET inside VAB for hail inspection
By William Atkins
Monday, 05 March 2007 02:27
The approximate seven-hour roll back from launch pad 39A to its hanger, a trip of about 3.4 miles, began at 8:47 a.m. Sunday, March 4, 2007, and ended at about 4 p.m. EST. Inspections and repairs are expected to last through the middle of April after about 1,100 dents were inflicted onto the foam insulation covering the giant external tank and minor surface damage occurring to about 26 heat shield tiles on the left wing of the orbiter Atlantis.
Of primary concern to NASA’s inspection team is whether the external tank can be repaired within the VAB—only minor damage has been inflicted upon it—or if it will be necessary to remove it from its stacked position and barged to New Orleans so repairs can be made by its manufacturer—in other words, major damage. The ET is made by NASA contractor Lockheed Martin, out of its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The ET is the largest component of the Space Shuttle. It consists of a forward liquid oxygen tank, an unpressurized intertank that contains electrical components, and a rear liquid hydrogen tank. When fully loaded with fuel, the ET is also the heaviest component of the Space Shuttle. It has a gross liftoff weight of about 762,100 kilograms (1.68 million pounds).
If the ET is returned to New Orleans, the flight will in all likelihood be pushed back to June. NASA officials still hope to fly five Shuttle missions in 2007. However, whether this goal can be reached will, in great part, be decided based on ‘Mother Nature’: the amount of hail damage caused by fierce weather racing across Florida and pounding the vulnerable foam insulation and protective tiles.
In any case, the mission will not take off before Russian Soyuz spacecraft exits from the International Space Station after delivering new Expedition 15 crew members and returning present Expedition 14 members to the Earth. These activities are scheduled for late April.
The Expedition 14 team currently aboard ISS consists of U.S. commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and U.S. flight engineer Sunita Williams.
U.S. ISS flight engineer Williams will remain onboard the space station as one of the members of the new Expedition 15 crew. She will be joined by Russian ISS commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Russian ISS flight engineer Oleg Kotov when they come aboard the station on Soyuz 14 (TMA-10). Soyuz will also deliver spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi.
U.S. flight engineer Clayton Anderson will arrive on the station aboard Shuttle Endeavour (STS-118). He will return when U.S. flight engineer Daniel Tani joins the station crew at his arrival aboard Shuttle Atlantis (STS-120).
