NASA remains confident that they can continue to work towards a May launch window for Shuttle Discovery\u2019s STS-121 \u2013 the second Return to Flight test mission. <\/p>\n
Workers at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) require both External Tanks \u201cET-119\u201d and \u201cET-118\u201d to arrive at the spaceport in time to support launch processing for a May window that starts on May 3.\n<\/p>\n
ET-119, the first of the ETs to arrive back at KSC minus its PAL (protuberance air load) ramp, is on schedule to be shipped from the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on March 3 \u2013 arriving in Port Canaveral on March 8. <\/font><\/p>\n ET-118, to be used on Atlantis\u2019 STS-115 mission in July, is also required back at KSC before Discovery launches. This is to support Atlantis\u2019 support role of STS-300, the Contingency Shuttle Crew Support (CSCS) mission which would be utilised in the event of a worse case scenario of the STS-121 crew requiring rescue from the \u2018safe haven\u2019 of the International Space Station (ISS), due to irreparable damage to Discovery during ascent. <\/font><\/p>\n The LON (Launch On Need) window for an STS-300 mission \u2013 based on consumables to support a stranded STS-121 crew on the ISS \u2013 is currently 59 days, far more than previous thought, thus raising confidence levels for the ET delivery dates being in support of all required elements for a May launch window of Discovery.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u2018ET 119 schedules continue to show March 3 as the ready to ship date, with an on dock date of around March 8,\u2019 said Kyle Herring, NASA PA for the Program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. \u2018That has not changed and supports the May window. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018ET 118 is second tank and schedules indicate it supports CSCS.\u2019<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n A firm shipping date for ET-118 is yet to be revealed, as work is still being undertaken with the removal process of the PAL ramp, but sources have indicated that an internal estimate for shipping the tank is April 7 \u2013 arriving into dock at KSC for April 12.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n Space Shuttle (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Should both tanks remain on schedule for arrival at KSC on their respective dates, launch processing would have to proceed without interruption or delay to support a potential lift-off of Discovery before the end of the May window (May 23).<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u2018It can be done, but it\u2019s critically important that we have a clean 121 mission \u2013 so the last thing we\u2019re going to is compromise that through tight processing schedules for the sake of making the May window,\u2019 noted a KSC source. \u2018On the flip side, we know how confident we are in 121 being a successful test flight. <\/p>\n \u2018We look forward to regular launch operations being initiated, after Discovery confirms wheel stop after her mission.\u2019<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n Discovery is currently being processed in OPF (Orbiter Processing Facility) High Bay 3. The SRB (Solid Rocket Booster) segments that will make up the boosters for STS-121 have arrived at KSC and are being prepared for assembly and stacking.<\/p>\n For breaking STS-121 news, see our RTF specific forum section: NASA remains confident that they can continue to work towards a May launch window for Shuttle Discovery\u2019s STS-121 \u2013 the second Return to Flight test mission. Workers at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) require both External Tanks \u201cET-119\u201d and \u201cET-118\u201d to arrive at the spaceport in time to support launch processing for a May window […]<\/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-42170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42170"}],"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=42170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/em><\/font>http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/forums\/forum-view.asp?fid=2<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"