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Veteran credits rookies with saving the day on station BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 16, 2006 The successful attachment and deployment of a huge new set of solar arrays on the international space station "bodes well" for a complex set of upcoming shuttle flights to build out the main power truss and ready the craft for attachment of European and Japanese research modules, Atlantis commander Brent Jett said today. Atlantis' flight marks the resumption of station assembly after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus and while Jett said he was heartened by his crew's success, every flight must go well for NASA to complete the outpost by the Bush administration's 2010 deadline. "I think it's certainly a good start," Jett told CBS News in an interview today. "Obviously, we have a lot of complex missions ahead to finish the station by 2010. We needed to get the first one off, we had a few small problems but the team on the ground did a wonderful job resolving them. So I think it bodes well for the future. Plus, the lessons we learned on this mission we can pass on to future missions with similar hardware." Space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini joked Friday that Jett's crew was so successful his biggest challenge now is convincing people station construction is as difficult as NASA managers and astronauts have been saying. But Joe Tanner, a four-flight veteran who now ranks fourth in the world for total time spacewalking, said Atlantis' mission might not have gone so well if two rookies - Dan Burbank and Canadian flier Steve MacLean - hadn't gotten a galled bolt out during the crew's second spacewalk. Asking about Suffredini's joking comment, Tanner said "I want to squash that bug right now. These EVAs were not easy. The fact that everybody said they looked easy is a real compliment to these three other people here and we appreciate it. Thank you very much." Floating on Atlantis' aft flight deck by Burbank, MacLean and his own partner, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Tanner then reached down and pulled up a giant wrench. "I know these two guys, these big, strong guys, aren't going to brag on themselves, so I want to show you the tool that they used on EVA-2," Tanner said. "This is a ratchet wrench with a nine-inch rigid extension and a cheater bar to give yourself a little more leverage. The moment arm here is around two feet and these guys backed out a bolt that was sticky, they're estimating it was probably 130 to 140 foot pounds of torque. They basically cut some new threads in a pretty sizable bolt. That was not in any shape or form easy. "If we hadn't gotten that bolt out, the arrays would not have been able to deploy and we'd be scratching our heads right now trying to figure out how to get that bolt out. So thanks for telling us we made it look easy, but it certainly was not." Atlantis blasted off Sept. 9, one day after a fuel tank hydrogen sensor malfunctioned and forced a 24-hour delay. NASA managers considered launching Atlantis that same day, despite a flight rule that calls for a 24-hour stand down in that situation. In the end, launch was scrubbed during a final hold at the T-minus nine-minute mark. Jett said today he agreed with the decision to stand down in accordance with the applicable launch commit criteria, or LCC. But he didn't mind taking the countdown into the final hold while the issue was discussed. "When we left for the pad, we sort of expected that we were not going to launch," he said. "We knew what the LCC rule was, it was written very clearly. We write those rules ahead of time so when we get into a situation with launch pressure, or maybe a little bit of launch fever, we can go to the rules and (know) we've debated all that rationale in a calmer environment. "We were ready to go, obviously, but we expected to go out and at some point scrub in the launch. But we felt it was a very worthwhile exercise because we know it was good to check out as many of the systems on the vehicle, take the count as far as you can, to try to discover any potential issues for that launch attempt on Saturday." Jett, Tanner, Burbank, Piper, MacLean and pilot Chris Ferguson enjoyed a half-day off earlier today. Sunday morning, Atlantis is scheduled to undock from the space station and, after a one-and-a-quarter-loop fly-around for a photo survey of the lab complex, back away to a point about 40 nautical miles away. On Monday, the crew will carry out a second inspection of the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry, to make sure no space debris or micrometeoroids hit the craft after a similar inspection the day after launch. Assuming no problems are found, the astronauts will pack up Tuesday and test the shuttle's re-entry systems before heading back to the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday morning. Touchdown is targeted for 5:57 a.m., but forecasters say high crosswinds and possible thundershowers could cause problems. Atlantis has enough on-board supplies, however, to stay in orbit for at least three additional days if necessary. The forecast improves Thursday, with light winds and only a slight chance of showers.
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STS-115 patch The official crew patch for the STS-115 mission of space shuttle Atlantis to resume orbital construction of the International Space Station. Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide  |
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LAUNCH AS SEEN BY HIGH-ALTITUDE WB-57 AIRCRAFT 