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Shuttle Atlantis set to launch August 27

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 18:56 CDT

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA will try to launch space shuttle Atlantis on August 27 to restart construction of the half-built International Space Station, U.S. space agency officials said on Wednesday.

Launch was set for 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT), but technical issues must be resolved before the shuttle is formally cleared for flight.

"The challenge of the space station assembly is really huge. It may not go exactly the way it's all scripted," NASA's associate administrator for space operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Atlantis' mission will be the first shuttle flight to resume construction of the $100 billion space station since the shuttle Columbia fell apart over Texas in 2003.

Engineers are reviewing an issue with bolts that attach the shuttle's primary communications antenna to the cargo bay wall. Two of the four bolts are short, leaving them hanging by one or two threads instead of the specified six to eight threads.

Incorrect bolts also were found in sister ships Discovery and Endeavour and have been replaced. The problem was found after Atlantis had already been taken to the launch pad.

All the bolts are original equipment. Atlantis has flown 26 times with the short bolts with no problem.

NASA is checking to see if it is worth the risk to make the equipment swap at the launch pad, where access to the antenna is difficult and potentially dangerous.

"Imagine operating on a surf board that's tied down at one end sticking out over a six-story balcony. It's got all kinds of implications. You'd just really rather not do (the work) because of the location and access," said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.

VIBRATIONS AT LAUNCH

Engineers are expected to spend the next few days determining whether the two properly sized bolts are adequate to stabilize the antenna during the vibrations at launch, should the short bolts come loose.

Hale said it was likely the bolts will be changed.

"We're not going to fly if we think there's a possibility the antenna could come off," said NASA administrator Michael Griffin.

If the antenna broke off during liftoff, it would fall 60 feet down the length of the payload bay, with potentially catastrophic results.

The cargo bay is filled with a 35,000-pound (15,900-kg) structural truss and power module that the shuttle's six astronauts plan to install on the space station.

NASA is eager to resume flying space station assembly missions and must complete construction before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

Two shuttle missions conducted since the Columbia disaster tested safety upgrades designed to avoid a repeat of the accident, when falling insulation foam from the external fuel tank knocked a hole in the shuttle's wing on liftoff.

Superheated atmospheric gases tore into the breach during re-entry 16 days later.

Construction of the space station, meanwhile, has been on hold because U.S. shuttles are the only spacecraft capable of carrying its larger components into orbit.

Resuming work on the orbital outpost, a multi-nation project, became possible after the safe return to Earth last month of space shuttle Discovery. Its 13-day mission successfully tested repair techniques and ways to examine the shuttle's fragile heat shield while in space.

Source: REUTERS

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