Final Launch Reviews Reveal Modifications to Endeavour for STS-134

[Chris Bergin]

Awesome article by Chris Gebhardt, from the massive Orbiter FRR presentation (L2) - deserves a standalone thread:

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/04/final-launch-reviews-modifications-endeavour-sts-134/

[Mark Max Q]

Great article. Always enjoy seeing how they learn from previous IFAs.

[PeterAlt]

I went into the archives of this site to see the history of this flight. Found this article to be the oldest:

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/02/shuttle-planning-clfs-ams-noted-maf-extra-ets/

If I'm reading this correctly, this flight as well as STS-133 were added to the manifest. Is that correct? I know STS-135 was definitely not part of the manefest until very recently. I heard STS-134 was originally not official as well, which is why I wanted to research its history. That article confirmed it, but I was surprised to see it mentioned that STS-133 was also not certain at that time. Of course, we all know that not only did STS-133 fly, but it also carried up the PLM instead of the module as an MPLM (which was a major positive surprise).

Also, that article mentions that 3 tanks were under construction in case the shuttle program was extended. This included two brand new tanks plus the one repaired from Katrina that is going up with STS-134. So, one of those two will be used for STS-135. And was the other one used for STS-133? If not, did they ever complete it?

So, all told three shuttle missions ended up getting added: STS-133, STS-134, and STS-135? Or was STS-133 pretty much in the can and really just STS-134 and STS-135 counts as extensions?

[ChrisGebhardt]

STS-134 and STS-135 are the added missions. STS-133 was always there but classed as a "Contingency Logistics Flight" along with STS-131. The CLF identification of those two flights (131 and 133) was done so that they could be "dropped" from the manifest if we were in danger of not finishing Shuttle by the previous Sept. 30, 2010 deadline

[psloss]

Couple of things to add to Chris's post:

First, the contingency logistics flights were the ULF-4 and ULF-5 missions; the different versions of the 2008 NASA Authorization language referred to the Shuttle manifest as of 1 January 2008 and at the time those missions were assigned to STS-131 and STS-133.  Neither mission was formally baselined at that time and ULF-4 ended up flying as STS-132.

Second, production of the External Tanks in the story mentioned was not completed.