STS-122 crew and NASA Atlantis approved for launch

William Atkins
Saturday, 01 December 2007 20:03

Science - Space

On November 30, 2007, NASA and contractor mission managers and engineers  held a day-long meeting involving all aspects of the STS-122 mission to the International Space Station.      

Their final conclusion was that Atlantis had no technical issues to prevent it from lifting off on December 6, 2007.

According to FloridaToday.com, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for space operations, stated, "We're all on track for the launch.”

The Flight Readiness Review meeting, held at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was conducted by mission managers and engineers involved with the flight readiness of the STS-122 mission.

The earliest that space shuttle Atlantis will launch is Thursday, December 6, 2007, but could be delayed up to December 13, if needed. The countdown clock will begin at 7:00 p.m. EST on Monday, December 3.

Launch is currently scheduled for 4:31 p.m. EST (2131 GMT) from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

The astronauts involved in the STS-122 mission will be installing—on the day after Atlantis docks at the station—the 23-foot (7-meter) long European Space Agency’s Columbus research laboratory to the end of the Harmony module, which was just installed on the previous STS-120 mission.

The Columbus module will provide ten racks for experiments. The ESA will also be providing Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs), starting next year. These unmanned cargo ships will ferry water, food, fuel, and various supplies to the space station. These ATVs will become very important to the space station once NASA's fleet of shuttles are retired in 2010.

The eleven-day STS-122 mission at the space station will involve at least three spacewalks to install and connect Columbus to Harmony. Two of the spacewalks will be performed by astronauts Rex Walheim (NASA) and Hans Schlegal (ESA), and one spacewalk is expected to be performed by Walheim and Stanley Love (NASA).

NASA STS-122 webpage, which includes biographies of each astronaut, is found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts122/index.html.

Besides working on the installation of Columbus, the spacewalkers will replace a nitrogen tank and remove a non-working gygroscope (and replace it with a new one). A fourth spacewalk is likely to be added to make detailed investigations about a faulty rotary joint on a solar power array. The astronauts will be bringing spare parts, including a drive motor, for the broken rotary joint, in preparation for its eventual repair. If the fourth spacewalk is added, the mission will probably be extended by two days.

In the news over the past few days has been an indication that an air leak was found in the connecting hallway between the Destiny laboratory module and the Harmony module. NASA officials are now stating that, based on several tests, there is no leak onboard. However, ISS Expedition 16 crewmembers, along with NASA ground controllers, will continue to monitor the situation.