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Oxygen leak fixed; robot arm analysis ongoing BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Updated: November 14, 2002
Still unresolved is the status of Endeavour's 50-foot robot arm, which was hit by an access platform Tuesday during work to gain access to the leaking oxygen line. The cargo access platform, or CAP, scraped and dented a section of the arm's protective honeycomb shell and engineers are still trying to determine whether the arm suffered any more serious damage. The Canadian-built robot arm is crucial to Endeavour's mission to attach a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment to the international space station. Because of clearance issues, the station's Canadarm2 space crane cannot lift the P1 truss from the shuttle's cargo bay. Endeavour's initial extraction must be accomplished by the shuttle's robot arm, which eventually will hand the truss off to the station arm for installation. After removing protective insulation, engineers plan to use ultrasound Thursday to assess the integrity of the composite structure of the shuttle arm. A loads analysis also is underway to analytically determine what sort of forces the arm might have been subjected to when it was hit, or nudged, by the CAP. Officials say mission managers will meet Friday afternoon to assess the oxygen line repair and the status of the robot arm troubleshooting.
Another wild card is Boeing's first Delta 4 rocket, a heavy-lift unmanned booster scheduled for its maiden launch Saturday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Forecasters are predicting bad weather Saturday and the owners of the European communications satellite being launched by the new rocket have ruled out launch attempts Sunday or Monday because of the Leonids meteor shower. If the forecast doesn't improve - and as of this writing, that appears unlikely - Boeing could elect to forego a Saturday launch attempt and instead retarget for Tuesday. But all rockets launched from Florida, manned or unmanned, rely Air Force Eastern Range tracking radar and other equipment and it typically takes a full day to reconfigure the range to support a different launch. New rockets like the Delta 4 typically get three days on the range. As of this writing, Monday is strictly a target for Endeavour; NASA has not yet formally requested a launch date from the Eastern Range. If Boeing ultimately gives up on Saturday and gets range support for Tuesday, Endeavour could be delayed to Wednesday. But at this point, the Delta 4 remains scheduled for launch this Saturday and Engineers remain hopeful Endeavour will be ready to go by Monday. Stay tuned!
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