Author Topic: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010  (Read 30026 times)

Online Chris Bergin

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Offline Chris SF

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Great news!

Offline STS-500Cmdr

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She gets a reprieve!!!!!  I love this ship--shes far too young to die  shes still got alot of flying to do!
Three Engines onboard Endeavour have now throttled back to 2/3rds throttle to prepare the spacecraft to pass through the area of maximum dynamic pressure and to go supersonic

Offline Thorny

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Very interesting news! That seems to give them a sporting chance to fly out the manifest before FY11.

But there is something wrong with that manifest... STS-119 (July 08) is missing. And if STS-119 is still on Endeavour, how the devil will they turn around Endeavour to be the Atlantis/Hubble rescue Shuttle by September 17? I think you've got Endeavour where Discovery should be on STS-326/STS-126.


Offline James Lowe1

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STS-119 isn't listed, but there's a lot of TBDs on the post 125 missions.

Offline Jorge

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Quote
Thorny - 24/6/2007  12:27 AM

Very interesting news! That seems to give them a sporting chance to fly out the manifest before FY11.

But there is something wrong with that manifest... STS-119 (July 08) is missing.

It's not missing. It has slipped after 126 into 2009 and is now TBD along with the other post-126 flights.

Quote
And if STS-119 is still on Endeavour, how the devil will they turn around Endeavour to be the Atlantis/Hubble rescue Shuttle by September 17? I think you've got Endeavour where Discovery should be on STS-326/STS-126.

All the orbiter assignments are shuffled - don't judge that manifest based on what you thought you knew before. Endeavour is now the HST LON shuttle.
JRF

Offline Bubbinski

Why fly the S6 truss after the STS-126 ULF flight?  Maybe the supplies are needed sooner?  And only 4 flights in 2008, that's kind of a bummer.  Oh well.
I'll even excitedly look forward to "flags and footprints" and suborbital missions. Just fly...somewhere.

Offline Space101

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Thorny - 24/6/2007  12:27 AM

Very interesting news! That seems to give them a sporting chance to fly out the manifest before FY11.



Really agree. A great move.
Let's go and explore space.

Online Ben E

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Also, why does Discovery require her next OMDP in March 2008 and Atlantis in July 2008? Discovery has only just (well, at the time of STS-114) come out of an OMDP, whereas Atlantis has been flying since 2000.

Offline fdasun

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Ben E - 24/6/2007  3:49 PM

Also, why does Discovery require her next OMDP in March 2008 and Atlantis in July 2008? Discovery has only just (well, at the time of STS-114) come out of an OMDP, whereas Atlantis has been flying since 2000.

I assume it's due to "current 3 year/8 flight OMDP interval requirement". But, I'm also wondering how they equalize these two factors (year vs. flight). Can anyone give an explanation ?

Offline whitewatcher

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #10 on: 06/24/2007 09:31 am »
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Bubbinski - 24/6/2007  8:01 AM

Why fly the S6 truss after the STS-126 ULF flight?  Maybe the supplies are needed sooner?  And only 4 flights in 2008, that's kind of a bummer.  Oh well.

They've removed some modules from the original ISS plans (CAM, HM, ...). So they won't need that much electricity on board the station. With P4/P6/S4 they should have enough power to operate the US-core and at least one lab. So, STS-119 with S6 has no top-priority to "completing the ISS".
"One Percent for Space"

Offline ShuttleDiscovery

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #11 on: 06/24/2007 10:14 am »
Is Atlantis' extended lifetime going to affect NASA's budget in any way?

It's just that that was one of the reasons to retire her early, because it would be cheaper...


Thanks. :)

Offline ShuttleDiscovery

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #12 on: 06/24/2007 10:37 am »
Another question on Atlantis. As she is going to 'live' a little longer, what is going to be done about the Composite Overwrap Pressure Vessels? They are way past their lifetime and are already a concern...

Online Ben E

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #13 on: 06/24/2007 10:42 am »
If STS-119 is being moved to 2009, what will happen to the Garrett Reisman/Sandra Magnus crew swap in mid-2008?

STS-124 in April already has a crew of seven assigned and the next ISS mission (ULF-2) is not due until October.

Offline kimmern123

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #14 on: 06/24/2007 10:48 am »
I guess Reisman down won't be a problem as the shuttle has flown with 8 crewmembers before, and I don't think that it will be that much of a weight increase to the orbiter for landing. So I guess he can go up on STS-123 and come down again on STS-124. The problem will be getting Sandy Magnus up, as was noted previously by Ben E, 119 is moved and 124 already has 7 crewmembers.

Offline ShuttleDiscovery

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #15 on: 06/24/2007 11:14 am »
Yeah, you'll have an empty shuttle coming back on STS-124...

Offline psloss

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #16 on: 06/24/2007 12:09 pm »
Quote
Thorny - 24/6/2007  1:27 AM

But there is something wrong with that manifest... STS-119 (July 08) is missing. And if STS-119 is still on Endeavour, how the devil will they turn around Endeavour to be the Atlantis/Hubble rescue Shuttle by September 17? I think you've got Endeavour where Discovery should be on STS-326/STS-126.
An additional note -- following the schedule hit from the hail damage to ET-124, NSF already reported that the program was reviewing different schedules for next year; flying ISS-15A/STS-119 before HST SM-4/STS-125 was only one of the options:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5087

Offline Rocket Ronnie

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #17 on: 06/24/2007 01:58 pm »
This is fantastic news. Keep the fleet at full strength!!

Offline Thorny

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #18 on: 06/24/2007 03:15 pm »
Quote
Jorge - 24/6/2007  12:38 AM

It's not missing. It has slipped after 126 into 2009 and is now TBD along with the other post-126 flights.

That raises the question, "then why bother with STS-118 now?" Why didn't they just move on to Node 2 / Columbus / Kibo and push back S5 until it's really needed... right before S6?

Offline Namechange User

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Re: Atlantis avoids early retirement - will keep flying to 2010
« Reply #19 on: 06/24/2007 03:51 pm »
By the way in regards to the manifest, TBD does not really mean to be determined in the conventional sense.  For the most part the program knows exactly what is the primary payload and goal of the flight.  I just has not been baselined into the manifest as such and historically does not happen until we move closer in time to the actual flight of that mission.
Enjoying viewing the forum a little better now by filtering certain users.

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