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| The crew aboard Endeavor are (l. to r.) Cmdr. Scott Kelly, pilot Charles Hobaugh, Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams
of Canada, Barbara Morgan, and Alvin Drew Jr. Mike Carlson/Reuters |
For shuttles, a packed schedule lies ahead
Endeavor's liftoff, set for late Wednesday, marks an accelerated pace of launches for NASA.
from the August 8, 2007 edition
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More space-station installations
Over the next 11 to 14 days, Endeavor's crew aims to install another truss segment to the ISS and an outside storage locker for spare parts. The truss segment will bear the station's final set of solar panels, slated to arrive next year. The crew also is set to put new shuttle hardware through its paces that will allow visiting orbiters to draw electricity from the space station, rather than from the orbiters' fuel cells. This gives mission managers the option to extend an orbiter's stay for as many as three days for reasons other than emergencies or temporary technical glitches.
"Adding six to seven crew members for those extra few days allows us to do a tremendous amount of work ... to maximize the remaining shuttle flights," says Doering. This capability becomes more valuable when the shuttle Atlantis is retired from the fleet next year and, if need be, cannibalized for spare parts.
A tune-up for Endeavor
For its part, Endeavor has just come out of a major overhaul that sounds like something out of "Car Talk": new electrical wiring, new filters, new seals, two new windows, and a spiffy new GPS system to use for reentry and landing. In addition, key portions of Endeavor's thermal protection system have been upgraded, as have impact sensors on the wings' leading edges.
Wednesday's launch date represents a one-day delay imposed last week as technicians hunted down a leak they discovered during a pressure check in the cabin. They traced the problem to a small piece of debris in a pressure-relief valve just behind the shuttle's toilet. As if to underscore Atlantis's future role, technicians replaced the valve – which has since been cleaned, tested, and declared fit to fly – with one from Atlantis.
The ambitious flight schedule poses one major challenge to NASA managers, Mr. Hale acknowledges: ensuring that the workforce remains intact and motivated even as the shuttle program winds down.
From a hardware standpoint, "all signs are that we can carry on" even if the program "encounters a few little hiccups." But retaining the program's skilled workforce is "the No. 1 thing on our minds," he says.
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