KSC Space Shuttle Processing Status Report, 23-05-2005

May 23, 2005

Melissa Mathews
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1272)

Jessica Rye
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(Phone: 321/867-2468)

STATUS REPORT: S05-020

NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE PROCESSING STATUS REPORT

NASA's Space Shuttle fleet is housed and processed at Kennedy Space
Center (KSC), Fla.

Mission: STS-114 - 17th ISS Flight (LF1) - Multi-Purpose Logistics
Module
Vehicle: Discovery (OV-103)
Location: Launch Pad 39B
Launch Date: Launch Planning Window July 13 - 31, 2005
Launch Pad: 39B
Crew: Collins, Kelly, Noguchi, Robinson, Thomas, Lawrence and Camarda
Inclination/Orbit Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

Technicians are preparing to roll Space Shuttle Discovery from the
launch pad to the Vehicle Assembly Building, now scheduled for early
morning on Thursday, May 26. Once there, orbiter Discovery will be
demated, or removed, from its External Tank (ET) and lowered into the
transfer aisle. On or about June 7, Discovery will be lifted and
attached to its new ET and Solid Rocket Boosters. Discovery is
expected to be rolled back out to the pad in mid-June.

Engineers are also investigating part of Discovery's main landing gear
door, after a small crack was found last week in a retract link
assembly on the right-hand main landing gear on orbiter Atlantis in
Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1. The Atlantis assembly was removed
and will be replaced with a spare. Engineers have looked at the
closeout photos of the link assembly on Discovery. The initial review
indicates the link assembly does not appear to have any cracks. To
ensure there are no cracks in the assemblies, technicians will enter
Discovery's payload bay and perform borescope inspections of the
area, an inspection that can only be accomplished at the pad. This
additional work does not impact the launch planning window of July
13-31.

Following the inspections, Discovery will undergo hot-fire tests of
its Auxiliary Power Units, currently scheduled for Wednesday.

Previous Space Shuttle processing status reports are available on the
Internet. Visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight


-end-

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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info