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Hurricane Ike forces delay of next two shuttle launches BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 24, 2008 Shuttle program managers today ordered minor, expected delays for the next two shuttle missions - an October flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope and a November space station assembly mission - primarily because of training time lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
The new target dates still must be reviewed by senior management, which plans an executive-level readiness review Oct. 2 and 3. Both delays were blamed on Hurricane Ike, which forced NASA to shut down the Johnson Space Center last week. The Atlantis astronauts, training for one of the most complex Hubble missions yet attempted, missed four underwater spacewalk training runs, two large-scale integrated simulations involving the astronauts and flight controllers and an ascent simulation to practice emergency procedures. "We had a little bit of room in the final couple of weeks, but all that stuff needs to be done and we have to make it happen before we fly," Atlantis commander Scott Altman told reporters Tuesday. Altman, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, flight engineer Megan McArthur and spacewalkers John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good donned pressure suits and strapped in aboard Atlantis today for a dress-rehearsal countdown at pad 39A. If the new target dates hold up, Atlantis would take off for real at 10:19:20 p.m. on Oct. 14. After a two-day orbital chase, robot arm operator McArthur would grapple the telescope around 9:33 p.m. on Oct. 16. Five back-to-back spacewalks are planned to install two new science instruments, to repair two others and to install six new gyroscopes, six batteries, a fine guidance sensor and insulation. For an Oct. 14 launch, the spacewalks would begin around 3:30 p.m., with the first on Oct. 17 and the final excursion on Oct. 21. If all goes well, Hubble would be released around 5:17 p.m. on Oct. 22 and Atlantis would land back at the Kennedy Space Center around 8:07 p.m. on Oct. 25. The Hubble mission is the only flight on NASA's shuttle manifest that doesn't go to the international space station. Because the telescope is in a different orbit, the Atlantis astronauts cannot seek safe haven aboard the lab complex in case of a major problem that might prevent a safe re-entry. Even though the odds of such a failure are considered remote, the shuttle Endeavour, hauled to pad 39B late last week, is being prepped for launch on an emergency rescue flight if the unexpected occurs. After Atlantis is cleared for entry, Endeavour will be moved to pad 39A and prepared for launch on a four-spacewalk station assembly flight. Under the proposed schedule, Endeavour would take off around 7:07 p.m. on Nov. 16 and dock with the space station around 4:40 p.m. on Nov. 18. Four spacewalks are planned, each one starting around 1 p.m., on Nov. 20, 22, 24 and 26. Undocking would be targeted for around 10 a.m. on Nov. 29 with landing on tap the afternoon of Dec. 1. See the updated Atlantis flight plan here and the Endeavour flight plan here.
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