NASA Plans Final Atlantis Shuttle Launch for June
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The shuttle will journey to the International Space Station to deliver supplies, logistics, and spare parts. It will also fly a system that will test robot-powered refueling on existing spacecraft, and return a failed ammonia pump module.
The AP reports that Atlantis was originally scheduled as an emergency backup mission for the crew of the Endeavor, which will launch in April. If all goes well with Endeavor, however, Atlantis will proceed as its own separate mission.
In October, President Obama signed the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which added an additional flight to the space shuttle fleet before its retirement. As AP points out, however, Congress has yet to hand over the several hundred million dollars NASA needs for the Atlantis mission. Initial funds are available in the existing budget, but not enough. Congress is set to appropriate the funds in March, AP said.
Prior to Atlantis, however, NASA needs to get the space shuttle Discovery off the ground. After several delays due primarily to cracks, Discovery is now scheduled for a February 24 liftoff.
To prevent further cracks, NASA technicians have been adding radius blocks to the shuttle's stringers, or support beams, which will provide added structural support to those areas. NASA said Friday that technicians had completed radius block work on 61 of 94 stringers, with modifications continuing through the weekend.
NASA will roll Discovery out to the launchpad on January 31.
Earlier this week, a biking accident prompted NASA to replace one of the astronauts who was scheduled to travel to the ISS next month via Discovery; Astronaut Steve Bowen will replace astronaut Tim Kopra on the STS-133 mission.
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