Repairs Underway Of Hail Damaged Shuttle External Tank

SHUTTLE NEWS

In highbay 1 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, technicians begin to carefully sand away the red dye that has been applied to the external tank to help expose cracks or compression dents. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossman.

by Staff Writers
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Mar 11, 2007
On Sunday, Atlantis rolled from Launch Pad 39A to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where employees spent the week positioning platforms around the shuttle to allow for inspections and repairs to hail-damaged areas. Inspections of the external tank are expected to be completed next week. Some foam sanding has begun in the nose cone area of the tank.

Inspections are finished for the solid rocket boosters and nearly complete for the orbiter, with 20 of 28 hail-damaged areas, all on the left side of the vehicle, already repaired.

A new target launch date has not been determined, but teams will focus on preparing Atlantis for liftoff in late April.

Mission STS-117 to the International Space Station will be scheduled sometime after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft returns from the station. The Soyuz is delivering new station crew members and returning others to Earth in late April. Adequate time is needed between the Soyuz undocking and the shuttle's arrival to the station.

During the 11-day mission, the six-member crew will install a new truss segment, retract a set of solar arrays and unfold a new set on the starboard side of the station. Lessons learned from two previous missions will provide the astronauts with new techniques and tools to perform their duties.

Atlantis Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialists Jim Reilly, Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson and John "Danny" Olivas will continue training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston as they await a new target launch date.

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

SHUTTLE NEWS

Shuttle Back In Vehicle Assembly Building

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Mar 07, 2007
Space Shuttle Atlantis has rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building from Launch Pad 39A. The vehicle was roll backed due to hail damage that occurred on the tank during a severe thunderstorm that happened on Feb. 26. The vehicle was "hard down" inside the Vehicle Assembly Building around 5:49 p.m. on Sunday, March 4.

ROCKET SCIENCE Italy Tests Prototype Of Unmanned Space Shuttle Castore X PRIZE Foundation Raises $2.7 Million At Gala Hosted At Google When Washed In Sunlight Asteroids Hit The Spin Cycle NASA Completes Orion Spacecraft Review	LAUNCH PAD United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches First USAF Atlas 5 Ariane 5 Mission Is A "Go" Russia May Open New Space Launch Site Hyundai To Build First South Korea Launch Pad
SHUTTLE NEWS Repairs Underway Of Hail Damaged Shuttle External Tank Shuttle Back In Vehicle Assembly Building Space Shuttle Atlantis Rolls Back Fuel To Be Removed From Space Shuttle	STATION NEWS Station Crew Perform Experiments Related To Human Adaptation To Space South Korean Astronauts For Flight To ISS Start Training No Adjustment To ISS Orbit Due To Atlantis Launch Postponement Space Station Safety Report Released
SPACE TRAVEL JAXA Hosts Kyoto Workshop For Global Space Exploration Strategy NASA Budget Tucked Away For Now But Hard Decisions Only Deferred Astronaut Fired A Month After Kidnap Attempt Astrophysicist Hawking To Try Out Weightlessness	DRAGON SPACE Homemade Suit For Chinese Spacewalk China To Prioritize Three Areas In Space Program If You Love Me Order Some Purple Space Potatoes China, US Have No Space Cooperation
ROBO SPACE Novel Salamander Robot Crawls Its Way Up The Evolutionary Ladder Look Ma, No Hands, No Humans Learning From Mistakes Next Challenge For Japanese Humanoids Superbots In Action	MARSDAILY Early Mars Had Underground Water System Rosetta Delivers Phobos Transit Animation And Sees Mars In Stereo SpaceDev's Starsys Division Awarded Contract For NASA Mars Science Explorer Mission Where Is Beagle 2

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement