"Kim Keller" wrote in message
...

"Brian Thorn" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 18:15:25 GMT, Reed Snellenberger
wrote:

Has a flight readiness firing been scheduled for the Heavy before it
is launched?

Nope.

And none is scheduled.

Why that thing has to sit on the pad for seven months when the Shuttle
only needed 4 before its maiden flight, I'll never know. So much for
progress.

There is a complex set of tanking tests on the schedule for the vehicle,
along with other tests designed to establish baseline data. It's a first
flight of a *major* configuration change. This is not just the first
flight
of the heavy config; it's also the first flight of the 5-meter second
stage.
How long did Columbia sit on Cx 39 before her first flight?

As Brian said, I think 4 months sounds about right. However, I suspect he's
not counting Enterprise which was used for a lot of testing also.



-Kim-