Next Shuttle Launch Now Pushed Back to Mid-May
By Traci Watson
The space shuttle slated to be next in orbit was so badly damaged in a freak hailstorm last month that its flight has been delayed until no earlier than mid-May, shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said Wednesday.
That means NASA will not be able to launch five flights in 2007 as planned, Hale said. He said the fifth flight will slide into 2008, thereby delaying many of that year’s flights.
Shuttle Atlantis was pelted with hailstones, some as big as golf balls, as it waited on the launch pad for a March 15 liftoff. The hail put thousands of dings in the foam insulation that covers the shuttle’s giant orange fuel tank and protects it from fluctuating temperatures. Most of the damage was to the part of the tank that sustains the highest stress during the ship’s ascent.
The shuttle needs to fly regularly so it can finish building the International Space Station before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010. The shuttle is the world’s only spaceship big enough to carry the pieces of the station to orbit.
“It is possible that we could still squeak into the May part of the launch window,” Hale said. If Atlantis doesn’t launch by May 21, it would have to wait until June 8 for proper conditions.
Hale insisted the delay would not threaten the station’s completion.
The shuttles are scheduled to make 16 trips to the space station before they’re rolled into the hangar for good. A shuttle is also supposed to pay a service call in 2008 to swap out aging batteries and pointing devices on the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA has paid extra attention to fuel tank foam since a piece of it fell off during shuttle Columbia’s liftoff in 2003. The chunk hit the shuttle’s wing, triggering its disintegration during re-entry two weeks later.
Atlantis’ six-person crew is scheduled to make three spacewalks to install and remove solar panels on the space station. The 11-day mission will also include work on a new oxygen-making system. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.