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STS-117 Atlantis Rollout (again)

Published on May 15, 2007 at 4:10 pm. 1 Comment.
Filed under space shuttle, space station.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is again on the launch pad. This morning, it was rolled about to Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. It’s been there before. Atlantis was moved to the launch pad three months ago in preparation for a mid-March launch to the International Space Station. However, severe thunderstorms at the end of February dropped hail onto the space center, damaging the foam insulation on the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The damage was deemed to severe to permit a safe launch. Furthermore, the damage was such that it could not be repaired on the launch pad. So, Atlantis was moved back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. Those repairs are now complete, and so Atlantis has now been moved back to the launch pad. This will the the first launch from Pad 39A since the 2003 STS-107 mission, which was the last flight of the Columbia. However, all future Space Shuttle launches are planned for Pad 39A as Pad 39B is modified for NASA’s next generation of spacecraft (with the provision that Pad 39B be held in reserve during the final Hubble servicing mission for any possible rescue launch). The earliest anticipated launch date for Space Shuttle mission STS-117 is now June 8.

STS-117 is an International Space Station (ISS) construction mission. Atlantis will deliver and install the S3/S4 truss and deploy solar panels for the ISS. The S3/S4 truss is a mirror image of the P3/P4 struss installed last September. This starboard truss will hold solar panels that will be used to power the additional science modules expected to be installed over the next two years. STS-117 incorporates some changes in procedure based on lessons learned from the installation of the P3/P4 truss on mission STS-115.