Avi Blizovsky
Update 20 / 8 / 06
NASA officials have decided to replace the two screws that hold the vital antenna to the cargo deck of the shuttle Atlantis, but claim that although this is a complicated operation due to the vertical position of the shuttle, this will not affect the planned launch date - August 27.
The operation began already at the end of this week, according to NASA spokeswoman Tracy Young, from the Kennedy Space Center. According to her, the operation should end on Sunday (today).
STS-115: Despite the short screws, NASA states: Atlantis will be launched on 27/8
18/8/06
The screw problem was discovered after Atlantis was transferred to the launch
NASA announced that the space shuttle Atlantis is ready for launch on August 27 for the mission of continuing the construction of the International Space Station. The launch is expected to be the same day at 16:30 EST (23:30 Israel time), but it still depends on the solutions to some problems.
Since the Columbia disaster, NASA has flown the shuttle Discovery twice to test the safety upgrades made following the disaster. Engineers are concerned that two screws securing the main communications antenna to the shuttle's cargo deck are too short. They want to ensure that the antenna does not fly inside the deck during the launch, and cause severe damage there.
The antenna transmits images and other vital data from the shuttle to the control center in Houston. "We will not launch the shuttle if we think there is any danger from the antenna." said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.
Atlantis has flown with these legs without any problems since they were installed in her about twenty years ago. The problem was discovered last week, after Atlantis was transferred to the launch pad. NASA officials ordered tests of the paperwork related to these screws in all three shuttles and it turned out that a similar fault was also discovered in the Discovery shuttle. NASA does not expect to decide until the beginning of next week whether to leave the screws in place or to replace them in a complicated operation for the purpose of the launch.
Because the shuttle is positioned vertically, technicians will have to build scaffolding on top of the six-story platform to replace the screws. This will require at least two more days from the relatively limited window of time NASA has (in coordination with the Russians, the window was reduced to September 6, to leave time after the shuttle's departure for a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to come and replace the station's crew members.
"It's like working on skis leaning to one side, on the edge of a balcony on the sixth floor." said Shuttle Program Director Wayne Hale.
The decision to meet the launch date was made after a two-day meeting of senior NASA officials at the Kennedy Space Center. The Atlantis launch will be the second shuttle launch of the year. Discovery was launched on July 4 for a 13-day mission to examine the safety arrangements.
