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Atlantis Repaired And Ready For Afternoon Launch

maybe Monday at 4:36pm EDT (2036 GMT) maybe not
by Pascal Barollier
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Apr 8, 2002
The US Space Shuttle Atlantis, twice delayed in last week's liftoff, was ready to begin Monday an 11-day trip to the orbiting International Space Station to deliver the first component of a future space train. Launch is targeted for 4:39:31 p.m. EDT (2039:31 GMT) Monday afternoon, with an available launch window of nearly 10 minutes from 4:34:31pm to 4:44:30pm EDT.

A welding team completed the repair work on the ground system hydrogen vent line leak late Saturday night, and a series of pressure checks, cold shock and X-ray inspections were performed to verify the integrity of the system, NASA officials said Sunday.

The leak, which occurred in a vent pipe on the side of the mobile launcher, is believed to have resulted from a weld that failed.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has scheduled the launch for 4:40 pm (2040 GMT).

But in compliance with new security regulations, the announcement was made less than 24 hours before the launch to minimize the risk of possible terrorist acts.

But the forecast for Monday gave a 40 percent probability of weather preventing the launch due to the likelihood of strong low-level winds in the Cape Canaveral area.

For Tuesday, the weather favorability rating was 80 percent.

"The team can support three launch attempts in a row," said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring.

The crew will be carrying a metal girder section designed to support tens of tons of equipment, solar panels and other systems necessary to survival in orbit.

The astronauts will spend the bulk of the mission assembling the Mobile Transporter, rail system to carry the station's Canadian-built mechanical arm along a 91-meter (300-foot) truss when it is completed.

The structure -- the longest ever assembled in space -- will move the arm at a speed of just 91 meters (300 feet) per hour as the station travels around the Earth at 27,000 kilometers an hour (17,000 miles an hour).

"The countdown is continuing," said NASA test director Pete Nickolenko at the Kennedy Space Center here. "All our flight and ground systems are looking great. The team is ready and looking forward" to the trip back to the station, he said.

Shuttle commander Michael Bloomfield, co-pilot Stephen Frick and mission specialists Rex Walheim, Ellen Ochoa, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steven Smith, will transport and install the railcar and first Mobile Transporter truss segment during the mission, the 13th to the station.

If the mission begins on Monday, Atlantis will return to Earth on April 19.

The first truss section, a 13-meter girder weighing 13 tonnes, was built by Boeing at a cost of 600 million dollars.

The crew members spent the weekend making final mission preparations and spending some time with their families, according to NASA officials.

They were at the launch pad on Saturday doing cable route inspections and had an opportunity to observe the welders doing their work on the mobile launcher platform.

The shuttle mission management team will meet again at 6:30 am (1030 GMT) Monday to assess status and give the go for propellant loading of the external tank.

earlier reports
Launch Of Atlantis Delayed Again
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Apr 6, 2002
The launch of the US space shuttle Atlantis has been delayed for a second time as leaking pipes in the fuel system are taking longer to repair than expected, the US space agency NASA said Friday.

The launch -- originally set for Thursday but delayed to Sunday -- was delayed again until Monday as crews work to repair the leak in the system through which liquid hydrogen is pumped into the shuttle's external fuel tanks.

The launch is now scheduled to occur between 2:00 pm (1900 GMT) and 6:00 pm (2300 GMT) Monday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman George Diller said.

About 10 percent of the tank had been filled with fuel when a weld failed Thursday in a low-pressure vent line, allowing some of the freezing, highly-explosive hydrogen to escape, officials said.

The cause of the failure is under investigation. One suspected cause is a sudden change in temperature. The shuttle's seven-member crew was not on board when the leak was discovered.

The delay puts a kink in plans to install the first component of a future space train aboard the International Space Station.

The shuttle's crew members were scheduled to spend the bulk of their 11-day mission assembling the first section of the Mobile Transporter, a rail system which eventually will carry the space station's Canadian-built mechanical arm along a 91-meter (300-foot) truss.

Shuttle commander Michael Bloomfield, co-pilot Stephen Frick and mission specialists Rex Walheim, Ellen Ochoa, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steven Smith are to transport and install the railcar and first truss section during the mission, the 13th to the station.

The structure is the longest ever to be assembled in space.

The delay is not expected to affect the station's construction schedule. However, too long a delay could push back the next shuttle flight, scheduled for May 31, which is set to bring a new crew to the station.

The International Space Station is a joint project of 16 countries, including the United States, Russia, Japan and France. Construction began in 1998 and is expected to be completed in 2006.

Fuel Leak Delays Launch Of Space Shuttle Atlantis
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Apr 5, 2002
A hydrogen leak in the US space shuttle Atlantis' fuel system delayed its launch Thursday, putting a kink in plans to install the first component of a future space train aboard the International Space Station.

The launch -- originally set for 5:12 pm (2212 GMT) Thursday -- was delayed until Sunday as crews work to repair the leak in the system through which liquid hydrogen is pumped into the shuttle's external fuel tanks, the US space agency NASA said.

The launch is now scheduled to occur between 2:00 pm (1900 GMT) and 6:00 pm (2300 GMT) Sunday, launch director Mike Leinbach said. The exact launch time is being withheld until Saturday for security reasons.

The leak was detected at about 9:00 am (1400 GMT) -- an hour after some two million liters of liquid oxygen and hydrogen began filling the shuttle's tanks, Leinbach said. About 10 percent of the tank had been filled when the leak occurred.

Leinbach said a weld failed in a low-pressure vent line, allowing some of the freezing, highly-explosive gas to escape.

"It appeared very quickly that the leak was way out of (specifications)," he said.

He said the cause of the failure is under investigation. One suspected cause is a sudden change in temperature.

The shuttle's seven-member crew was not on board when the leak was discovered, said William Johnson, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The shuttle crew is scheduled to spend the bulk of the mission assembling the first section of the Mobile Transporter, a rail system which eventually will carry the space station's Canadian-built mechanical arm along a 91-meter (300-foot) truss.

Shuttle commander Michael Bloomfield, co-pilot Stephen Frick and mission specialists Rex Walheim, Ellen Ochoa, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steven Smith are to transport and install the railcar and first truss section during the mission, the 13th to the station.

The structure is the longest ever to be assembled in space.

The delay is not expected to affect the station's construction schedule. However, too long a delay could push back the next shuttle flight, scheduled for May 31, which is set to bring a new crew to the station.

The International Space Station is a joint project of 16 countries, including the United States, Russia, Japan and France. Construction began in 1998 and is expected to be completed in 2006.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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Students Rack Up 290 Samples For ISS Biotech Experiments
desktop available from this story Huntsville - April 2, 2002
Hundreds of students and teachers from nine states have prepared 290 biological samples for an experiment astronauts will deliver to the International Space Station when Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to that unique, orbiting laboratory in April.



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