John Doe wrote:

"Steven S. Pietrobon" wrote:
Also, I notice Endeavour not flying until mid-05. Is it about to undergo
major maintenance period ? (I take it it will get MEDS ?) If so, could
they begin as soon as the major maintenance for Discovery has been
completed, or must they wait for Atlantis to move to VAB to make room ?

Yep, Endeavour is undergoing OMM. Discovery's has finished and it will be
back into the flight rotation as soon as the shuttles start flying again.

Discovery has received MEDS, and Endeavour will get it during OMM. STS-113
will go down as the last shuttle flight with the old-style cockpit.

As far as OPF space goes, there are three OPF bays and three orbiters.
There's no need to put an orbiter in the VAB to make room now.

114 12 Sep 04 - Atl-27 ISS-17-LF1, MPLM 2(P)-03 (ISPRs), ESP-2
w/ORUs,
LMC (CMG)
121 15 Nov 04 - Dis-31 ISS-18-ULF1.1, MPLM(P), ICC, LMC

Of the MPLM flights that have occured so far, were they filled to the
brim, or
was there still plenty of capacity ? Curious if it will really take 2
MPLM flights to restock the station's supplies.

There was a fairly long gap between MPLM flights from (I think) STS-111 and
STS-114. STS-114 was going to be pretty full even if it flew on time, and
the grounding just added to the amount of stuff that needs to go up, hence
the insertion of the extra flight.

Also, since another CMG at the station has exhibited strange behaviour,
shouldn't they slot this in already, or will they wait until it has failed
? (reminds me of the AE-35 antenna issue).

I think the 2nd CMG replacement will not be manifested until it's
unavoidable, and even if it fails prior to Return to Flight, I'd be very
surprised to see it go up any earlier than STS-121. That would allow
engineers the chance to refine the replacement job based on lessons learned
on STS-114.

Now, this one is puzzling. Since there seems to be a desire to reduce the
amount of time the station flies in an asymetrical config, shouldn't the
order have been:

P3/P4 (sts115) , S3/S4 (sts117), P5 (sts116), S5 (sts118) ???

Or is there a bigger priority to attach P5 to P3/P4 before the starboard
side is worked on ? (if so, why ?)

S5 and P5 are comparatively small sections of truss, so the asymmetry isn't
as much of a problem, and their missions double as logistics flights at
pretty convenient positions in the manifest.

Also, the schedule for turnaround seems fairly agressive. Can they really
turn Atlantis around in about 2.5 months ?

You're right, it does seem pretty tight. It's definitely within possibility,
though, and shuttle missions never fly on schedule anyway ;-).

--Chris