Space Shuttle: February 2008 Archives

I spoke to NASA space operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier at Kennedy Space Center last week, immediately after the post-launch press briefing, and I asked him about the timing of the decision and announcement for Atlantis retirement, whether retirement is this September, after the Hubble Space Telescope STS-125 mission, or if it is after two more missions

After pausing he said that a decision would be made after STS-122. I was surprised by this as I had been told "in the spring" before

Later on I was told by a western European space agency official that NASA had already essentially decided to continue with Atlantis because of the flexiblity in missions that it gives them.

I had already written about NASA's ordering of long lead items for the Shuttle to Station Power Transfer System and its application to Atlantis would mean a five extra-vehicular activity per mission capability for all three of the remainng orbiters, giving the agency maximum flexiblity for the remaining nine missions (after STS-125 and including those so-called "contingency" missions)

It also makes public relations sense to announce the stay of execution immediately after a successful mission. So expect to see more of this!

For the Eagle eyed of you, you might have noticed that in my "VIDEO: Exclusive video of orbiter Endeavour in its OPF and its external tank and SRBs in the VAB" post the video with the ET and SRBs had not quite made it.

Working in KSC's news center on Friday I had to dash to grab a free ride to the airport before I could upload that final video. So here it is, at last, and courtesy of our shiny new video hosting system, so it's bound to work first time...

Exclusive video, taken today, of orbiter Endeavour in its Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) and its external tank and Solid Rrocket Boosters (SRB) in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), in preparation of its mission STS-123, can be seen below.

Endeavour will be moved from its OPF bay to the VAB early on the morning of Monday 11 February, with arrival at the VAB's bay one - where the ET and SRBs are already mated - scheduled for 0800h

The nose gear of Endeavour and the belly of the Shuttle can be seen clearly in this video from the OPF bay one

Here the starboard side of the orbiter can be seen and if you look carefully you should be able to see the E for Endeavour

Here the starboard wing and fuselage of the orbiter can be seen and if you look carefully you should be able to see the first few letters for United, as in United States

Looking at the rear of the orbiter Endeavour in OPF bay one, the engines come into view

Entering the Vehicle Assembly Building its four bays, each of which could contain a completed Space Shuttle stack, are on the right and left of the picture. The SRB nose cones that can be seen at the start of the video are for the April STS-124 mission's solid rocket boosters

Or watch NASA's video here

1453h With a smooth countdown Atlantis launched on time and sped into a bright blue clear sky here at KSC. Video wil be uploaded soon

credit: NASA tv

Right to left: NASA launch weather officer Kathy Winters, STS-122 payload manager Debbie Hahn, NASA test director Jeff Spalding

While the continental US landing and TAL sites all have good weather in coming days the storm clouds are apparently closing in here at the Cape

According to today's 1000h EST L-1 STS-122 status briefing there is a 70% chance of weather prohibiting launch tomorrow and the decision could come as early as the mission management team (MMT) meeting that is held at 0445h

We were told that there was a 5% chance of severe weather, a thunder storm basically, an hour or two after the launch time of 1447h

While there was a 0% chance of weather prohibiting tanking, fuelling the Shutte's external tank with its liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, Kathy Winters, NASA's launch weather officer (from the 45th Weather Squadron at the US Air Force's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station), described the opinion of her office as being "a lot of concern" for the launch and they expected cumulus clouds and some rain. Essentially if the MMT doesn't like the weather expected later that day tanking won't happen

While Friday looked a bit better with a 30% chance of weather prohibiting launch Saturday was only worse with a 40% chance and then over the weekend wind speeds were expected to rise and later next week the weather fronts would likely repeat the current scenario

Jeff Spalding, NASA test director, said that there had yet to be a decision on whether three launch attempts would be made before standing KSC down

I am flying to Florida today with a 1245h (local time) flight from London Gatwick and expect to be in Cocoa Beach by about 1900h EST tonight

I am still planning on live blogging from Kennedy Space Center's media center about the launch and the L-1 media events that will take place for the European Space Agency, whose Columbus module is being taken to the International Space Station, and NASA's own press briefings. I understand there might be an Ares I-X briefing - and expect some NASA budget reporting and commentary in due course

But in the mean time here is some orbiter Atlantis launch goodness

STS-115

STS-117

STS-104