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Station juggles spacewalk, supply ship and shuttle plans BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: January 11, 2008 Russian space managers have agreed to move up the launch of an unmanned Progress supply ship by two days to Feb. 5, clearing the way for NASA to retarget launch of the shuttle Atlantis on a twice-delayed space station assembly mission for Feb. 7. NASA managers made the decision Thursday and officially announced it Friday, after consultation with the agency's international partners. Originally scheduled for launch last month, Atlantis was grounded Dec. 6 and 9 because of intermittent problems with troublesome low-level hydrogen sensors in the ship's external tank. Before the Christmas break, officials said launch was off until at least Jan. 10 and on Jan. 3, the "no-earlier-than" date was moved to Jan. 24. But resolving the engine cutoff - ECO - sensor problem has been difficult and deputy shuttle Program Manager John Shannon told reporters at that time the launch likely would slip into early February. This week, agency managers decided to move the launch target to Feb. 7 after Russian space officials agreed to move the Progress up two days to Feb. 5. Assuming the schedule holds up - and on-going tests show an upgraded ECO system wiring connector works as expected - Atlantis would take off around 2:47 p.m. EST on Feb. 7, setting up a docking with the space station around 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 9. Three spacewalks are planned, on Feb. 10, 12 and 14 with undocking on Feb. 16 and landing back at the Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 18. The two-month launch delay means a flight by the shuttle Endeavour that originally was scheduled for mid February will slip to mid March instead, a ripple effect for other downstream flights. That includes Atlantis' next mission, a long-awaited flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Launch had been planned for around Aug. 7 but the flight is now expected to slip to the end of August or into early September. In the near term, NASA faces a challenging few weeks with a space station solar array motor repair spacewalk planned for around Jan. 30 amid on-going work to install a replacement ECO sensor connector in the wall of Atlantis' external tank. Data collected during a fueling test last month indicates the open circuits in the ECO sensor wiring that derailed the December launch tries were located in a so-called feed-through connector that routes signals from the sensors inside the tank to the shuttle's computer system. The connector and the external wiring harness were removed and sent to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for testing. A replacement connector, featuring a harness that is soldered to the feed-through connector, is being installed this week and next. At Marshall, initial tests subjecting the original flight hardware to ultra-cold cryogenic conditions resulted in "power fluctuations" in one of the ECO circuits, a spokesman said today, which "lends credibility" to the theory that intermittent, temperature-induced contact between pins and sockets in the connector hardware "really is the issue we've got." The test signature was not identical to the the open circuits experienced during the launch scrubs and subsequent tanking test. But troubleshooting is far from complete, including cryogenic tests to verify the integrity of the new soldered connector design. Space station flight controllers, meanwhile, are gearing up for a spacewalk by Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson and Dan Tani around Jan. 30 to replace a solar array positioning motor that failed late last year. NASA also plans a senior-management shuttle flight readiness review that same day. If all goes well, Atlantis' countdown will begin the afternoon of Feb. 4, the same day NASA unveils the Bush administration's budget for the civilian space agency. The Progress supply ship is scheduled for launch at 8:03 a.m. on Feb. 5 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with docking on tap at 9:34 a.m. on Feb. 7, about five hours before Atlantis' scheduled launch. Here is an abbreviated shuttle flight plan based on a launch at 2:47 p.m. on Feb. 7. The actual launch time will will be updated based on tracking of the international space station, but these times are believed to be "in the ballpark" for planning purposes (in EST and mission elapsed time): DATE/EST.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 02/07/08 Thu 02:47 PM...00...00...00...STS-122 launch Thu 08:47 PM...00...06...00...Crew sleep begins 02/08/08 Fri 04:47 AM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup Fri 09:12 AM...00...18...25...Heat shield inspection begins Fri 03:07 PM...01...00...20...Heat shield inspection concludes Fri 08:47 PM...01...06...00...Crew sleep begins 02/09/08 Sat 04:47 AM...01...14...00...STS crew wakeup Sat 11:34 AM...01...20...47...Atlantis docks with space station Sat 08:47 PM...02...06...00...STS crew sleep begin 02/10/08 Sun 04:47 AM...02...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Sun 09:37 AM...02...18...50...EVA-1: Spacewalk begins Sun 03:47 PM...03...01...00...Columbus bolted to station Sun 04:07 PM...03...01...20...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization Sun 08:47 PM...03...06...00...STS/ISS crew sleep begins 02/11/08 Mon 04:47 AM...03...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Mon 03:22 PM...04...00...35...Columbus module ingress Mon 08:47 PM...04...06...00...STS crew sleep begins 02/12/08 Tue 04:47 AM...04...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Tue 09:37 AM...04...18...50...EVA-2: Spacewalk begins Tue 11:47 AM...04...21...00...EVA-2: Nitrogen tank installation Tue 04:07 PM...05...01...20...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization Tue 07:47 PM...05...05...00...STS crew sleep begins 02/13/08 Wed 03:47 AM...05...13...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Wed 07:47 AM...05...17...00...Shuttle crew off duty Wed 07:47 PM...06...05...00...STS crew sleep begins 02/14/08 Thu 03:47 AM...06...13...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Thu 08:37 AM...06...17...50...EVA-3: Spacewalk begins Thu 08:57 AM...06...18...10...EVA-3: External experiments moved to Columbus Thu 03:07 PM...07...00...20...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization Thu 06:47 PM...07...04...00...STS crew sleep begins 02/15/08 Fri 02:47 AM...07...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Fri 09:47 AM...07...19...00...Joint crew news conference Fri 02:17 PM...07...23...30...Farewell ceremony Fri 02:32 PM...07...23...45...Hatches closed Fri 06:47 PM...08...04...00...STS crew sleep begins 02/16/08 Sat 02:47 AM...08...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Sat 06:37 AM...08...15...50...UNDOCKING Sat 10:27 AM...08...19...40...Heat shield inspection begins Sat 02:52 PM...09...00...05...Heat shield inspection concludes Sat 06:17 PM...09...03...30...STS crew sleep begins 02/17/08 Sun 02:17 AM...09...11...30...Crew wakeup Sun 04:52 AM...09...14...05...Cabin stow Sun 06:17 AM...09...15...30...Flight control system checkout Sun 02:17 PM...09...23...30...Crew off duty Sun 06:17 PM...10...03...30...Crew sleep begins 02/18/08 Mon 02:17 AM...10...11...30...Crew wakeup Mon 09:44 AM...10...18...57...Deorbit ignition Mon 10:45 AM...10...19...58...Landing
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VIDEO:
POST-TANKING TEST NEWS CONFERENCE 