Discovery\u2019s new No Earlier Than (NET) launch date for STS-121 is now May 10, while Atlantis has been bumped down to August for her STS-300 contingency shuttle crew support (CSCS) mission \u2013 and STS-115 assembly flight to the International Space Station (ISS). <\/p>\n
The latest Shuttle flight manifest, acquired by this site, points to External Tank (ET-118) \u2013 which will fly with Atlantis \u2013 being delayed past the required point of supporting her July launch date, previously noted on flight manifest option 05D-12. Discovery\u2019s window, now shortened by a week, runs until May 23, with United Space Alliance sources noting they will need a smooth launch processing flow to achieve the May window, given the lack of contingency days installed into the start of the window, leading to a maximum of 13 days contingency, even before Discovery has rolled over to the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) on April 13.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n NASA officials won\u2019t be working to a tight \u2013 or rushed \u2013 timeline, given no official launch date has been set. A move to July would not be a launch date delay, rather a new target launch window. NASA sources emphasised STS-121\u2019s importance to the remaining Shuttle manifest, with a launch of Discovery only occurring \u2013 as with all launches \u2013 when they are absolutely confident to do so.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n All dates are currently laid out to assist processing timelines for engineers and technicians working on the Shuttle fleet. However, NASA PAO did send out an e-mail to the media last night for accreditation purposes for a May 3-23 STS-121 launch window.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n ET-119, which will fly with Discovery on STS-121, is set to be shipped from the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) on March 3, arriving at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on March 8.<\/p>\n <\/font>http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/content\/?id=4195<\/font><\/font><\/u> \u2013 Exclusive Shipping Date article. <\/font><\/p>\n Discovery\u2019s processing remains on track, despite two of her SSME\u2019s being removed to help evaluations on an IFA (In Flight Anomaly) of high levels of O2, recorded by catch bottles in her aft during ascent on STS-114. Evaluations are set to confirm the recordings were \u2013 as initially thought \u2013 bad data, due to an new analysis machine.<\/p>\n <\/font>http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/content\/?id=4279<\/font><\/font><\/u> \u2013 <\/font>Exclusive articles that revealed the information on the leak \u2013 and following evaluations.<\/font><\/p>\n Discovery\u2019s sister, Atlantis, continues to be in launch prep for STS-115 in OPF (Orbiter Processing Facility) 1, readying herself to carry ISS truss elements P3\/P4 uphill. She was set to launch \u2013 as per manifest 05D-12 \u2013 within a window starting July 1, but has now been moved to a NET date of August 28.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n Spaceflight news subscription (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n The reason for the loss of the July window is ET-118\u2019s delay in arriving at KSC in time to support launch processing for the July window.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n ET-118, currently located at the Horizontal Final Assembly Bay, Position 1 at MAF, only had part of its PAL (Protuberance Air Loads) ramp removed three weeks ago, with a large amount of work still to be completed on fight modifications, such as the Ice\/Frost ramp.<\/p>\n A delay to Atlantis\u2019 launch schedule will not stop Discovery launching in May, despite the STS-300 rescue mission requirement surrounding STS-121. This is due to an extension of the CSCS window, allowing Atlantis to aim for an August 4 \u2018assessed launch date\u2019 \u2013 according to the new manifest, should Discovery suffer serious damage on ascent, leading to her crew needing to take up residence in the \u2018safe haven\u2019 of the ISS.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n The large extension of the CSCS window, jumping from a 15th of July assessed launch date to August 4 \u2013 in support of a May launch of Discovery \u2013 points to an improved supporting role from the Russians, added to large amounts of logistics carried on Discovery, with the new manifest showing two Progress re-supply missions on the 10th of April and June 30, in assistance of ensuring the ISS is capable of supporting a jump to nine crew members, while awaiting Atlantis\u2019 rescue.<\/p>\n Those Progress dates have recently been updated by the Russians, with the re-supply missions now slated for April 24 and June 28 respectively.<\/p>\n It is possible, though not listed, that the Russians could add another Progress mission in support of a CSCS contingency. RCS Energia previously noted they could \u2018rush\u2019 three Soyuz crafts to rescue Discovery\u2019s crew, during STS-114, last year. <\/font><\/p>\n The rest of the manifest, which concentrates on the first five missions of the final four years of Shuttle flights, remains the same as the previous manifest. STS-119 to STS-123 remain on the manifest, but are tagged as \u2018not on the baseline\u2019 of the FDRD (Flight Definition and Requirements Directive).<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n Below is the current manifest for the next nine flights.<\/p>\n New NET dates: <\/u><\/p>\n 2006 2007 For latest news and live updates: <\/p>\n <\/font><\/u>http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/category-view.asp?catlock=2<\/em><\/font><\/font><\/u> \u2013 Orbiter specific live updates thread.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Discovery\u2019s new No Earlier Than (NET) launch date for STS-121 is now May 10, while Atlantis has been bumped down to August for her STS-300 contingency shuttle crew support (CSCS) mission \u2013 and STS-115 assembly flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The latest Shuttle flight manifest, acquired by this site, points to External Tank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe new manifest could be changed at least once more this month, with a PRCB (Program Requirements Control Board) meeting on February 16 set to discuss the current launch schedule. <\/font> <\/p>\n
STS-121 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Discovery \u00e2\u20ac\u201c May 10 (NET)
[STS-300 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Atlantis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Aug 4)
STS-115 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Atlantis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c August 28
STS-116 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Endeavour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c October 1
STS-117 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Atlantis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c December 7 <\/p>\n
STS-118 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Endeavour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c March 15
STS-119 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Discovery \u00e2\u20ac\u201c May 3
STS-120 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Atlantis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c June 14
STS-122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Endeavour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c August 23
STS-123 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Discovery \u00e2\u20ac\u201c October 11.<\/p>\n
<\/em><\/font>http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/forums\/thread-view.asp?tid=1342&start=1<\/em><\/font><\/font><\/u> \u2013 PRCB and STS Manifest thread <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n