NASA plans 3 launches this year

March 1, 2006

NASA plans 3 launches this year

May mission crucial to plan

BY TODD HALVORSON
FLORIDA TODAY

NASA aims to fly three shuttle missions by the end of the year and its
second post-Columbia test flight is being targeted for launch from
Kennedy Space Center on May 10, officials said Tuesday.

A firm date for the launch of Discovery will not be set until late
April. There is no extra time in a tight schedule of work to prepare
the shuttle for the mid-May target. Any significant technical problem
could push the launch to a window that opens July 1.


Target dates
# Here are the target launch dates for the next three shuttle
missions. STS-121, Discovery, May 10
# STS-115, Atlantis, Aug. 28
# STS-116, Discovery, Nov. 16


"Some people could call that an aggressive schedule. I like to call it
an exciting schedule. It has a reasonable chance of success," NASA
Shuttle Launch Director Michael Leinbach said. "Given where we are in
the program, it makes sense to make a run at it."

NASA still is struggling to return its shuttle fleet to service more
than three years after an external tank foam debris strike caused the
February 2003 Columbia accident.

Sixteen pieces of foam -- including five large enough to cause
catastrophic damage -- broke free from Discovery's tank during a test
flight last summer. The fleet since has
been grounded.

Post-Columbia daylight launch restrictions limit NASA's opportunity in
May to a window that extends through May 22.

The 15-story tank for NASA's next mission will arrive at KSC today.
Engineers removed the source of the most hazardous debris on last
summer's flight -- a foam slab that served as a windshield for
electrical cabling and fuel pressurization lines on the outside of the
tank.

Wayne Hale, NASA's shuttle program manager, said engineering analyses
show it should be safe to fly without the Protuberance Air Load ramp.
Key wind tunnel tests still must be completed to prove the electrical
cabling and pressurization lines will not be ripped off in flight,
triggering catastrophe.

Tests are scheduled in Ohio and California during the next two months.
If those fail to prove it is safe to fly, the launch would be put off
until more sophisticated tests scheduled in June at a wind tunnel in
Tennessee.

In that case, NASA's next launch opportunity would come between July 1
and July 20.

Engineers also have modified five other areas of the tank to prevent
foam loss. Hale said NASA never would be able to completely stop foam
shedding. The modifications are designed to halt the loss of pieces
large enough to cause critical damage, he said.

NASA plans to launch 16 to 19 more shuttle missions to complete
assembly of the International Space Station and service the Hubble
Space Telescope.

Station construction is slated to resume with the launch late this
summer of Atlantis with an American solar power tower. Target launch
date is Aug. 28.

The agency also hopes to launch Discovery on another station assembly
mission before the end of the year. Target date for that launch is
Nov. 16.

Contact Halvorson at 639-0576 or