NASA STS-122 should be GO for launch

William Atkins
Saturday, 24 November 2007 01:32

Science - Space

If Saturday's spacewalk at the International Space Station is successful, nothing seems to be standing in the way of NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis lifting off on December 6, 2007.

Two days before Thanksgiving, ground support crews at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, repaired a faulty helium valve, which is located on the forward control system of the orbiter. Other than that, no problems are apparent that might hinder the mission.

That same day (November 20, 2007), International Space Station commander Peggy Whitson and ISS flight engineer Daniel Tani successfully connected cooling lines and power cables to the new Harmony node and its docking port.

Whitson and Tani will go outside of the space station again on Saturday, November 24, 2007, to finish up work on Harmony. A successful conclusion to their spacewalk will lead the way to a visit of the space shuttle Atlantis early in December.

On November 27, a NASA space station readiness review will be conducted. Three days later, a headquarters-level flight readiness review will be held by NASA managers. A news conference will be held afterwards to discuss the status of the mission. These two reviews are important steps to the final go-ahead for launching of the STS-122 mission.

The STS-122 mission is scheduled to deliver the European Space Agency (ESA) Columbus module to the space station. It will be connected to the Harmony module, which is why it was so important that the ISS crew finish up its work to have Harmony fully functional before the mission is launched.

Once the STS-122 crew reaches the space station, three spacewalks (on December 9, 11, and 13) are planned to install the Columbus scientific laboratory. Another spacewalk may be added to the busy mission schedule in order to begin repairing a jammed solar array joint.

The STS-122 will be the final mission of the space shuttle Atlantis to the space station. For its final flight, Atlantis will next be prepared for its STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is now scheduled to lift off on August 7, 2008.

At the end of the STS-122 mission, only ten scheduled flights remain in the Space Shuttle program (officially called the Space Transportation System [STS] program). Two tentative flights to the space station, called Contingency Logistic Flights, may also be flown by space shuttle Endeavour, one before and one after scheduled mission ten.

Steve Frick will command the Atlantis' seven-member crew, which includes pilot Alan Poindexter, mission specialists Rex Walheim, Stanley Love, Leland Melvin and ESA astronauts Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts. In addition, Eyharts will replace ISS Expedition 16 flight engineer Daniel Tani and remain aboard the station as a member of the Expedition 16 crew. Tani will return home with the STS-122 crew on December 17.

A mission summary of the NASA STS-122 mission, including astronaut biographies, appears at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts122/.