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#40
by
faustod
on 26 Feb, 2010 07:03
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#41
by
Chris Bergin
on 27 Feb, 2010 05:17
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#42
by
robertross
on 27 Feb, 2010 20:47
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Thanks Chris. Eagerly following all this...especially the schedule crunch. I may have to simple buy my plane ticket today and hope for the best. The seats are becoming scarce/expensive.
I hope they can make a decision soon if they wish to push the launch out between the DDO of 21S and 23S.
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#43
by
TISM
on 28 Feb, 2010 22:49
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Could someone explain the schedule crunch? Is is just related to workforce workload or are they feeling the time between missions is too close, assuming some delays or issues that may arise?
Thanks Peter
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#44
by
cd-slam
on 28 Feb, 2010 23:29
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As I understand it, the main schedule "crunch" is the time taken to turn launch pad 39A around after the STS-131 mission before STS-132 is rolled out.
The original schedule, based on STS-131 launch on March 18, had STS-132 roll out 1st week of April. Now with launch on April 5, they will not be able to roll STS-132 out until at least mid April. That makes a May 14 launch date tight. Not impossible, but tight.
Wish them all the best, hope they can get this one off before hurricane season! Then perhaps enough time to get Atlantis ready for STS-135?
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#45
by
robertross
on 28 Feb, 2010 23:38
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As I understand it, the main schedule "crunch" is the time taken to turn launch pad 39A around after the STS-131 mission before STS-132 is rolled out.
The original schedule, based on STS-131 launch on March 18, had STS-132 roll out 1st week of April. Now with launch on April 5, they will not be able to roll STS-132 out until at least mid April. That makes a May 14 launch date tight. Not impossible, but tight.
That's right.
Then add the DDO and schedule of Soyuz with 21S & 23S, and it gets interesting.
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#46
by
TISM
on 28 Feb, 2010 23:49
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Thanks, I do hope the crunch does not eventuate, I have reservations in place to come over from Australia for the launch.
In fact, I have my own 'crunch' that is almost as complex, with the window for me to get over for May being limited, kids, school, pre school, my wife and my own business travel schedules, etc.
I will watch with great interest.
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#47
by
Ronsmytheiii
on 01 Mar, 2010 02:51
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As I understand it, the main schedule "crunch" is the time taken to turn launch pad 39A around after the STS-131 mission before STS-132 is rolled out.
The original schedule, based on STS-131 launch on March 18, had STS-132 roll out 1st week of April. Now with launch on April 5, they will not be able to roll STS-132 out until at least mid April. That makes a May 14 launch date tight. Not impossible, but tight.
Wish them all the best, hope they can get this one off before hurricane season! Then perhaps enough time to get Atlantis ready for STS-135?
Only on LON duty, hopefully wont have to go through full processing on that one.
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#48
by
Chris Bergin
on 01 Mar, 2010 16:49
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ET-136 arriving at the turn basin (or is at least in sight).
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#49
by
daniela
on 01 Mar, 2010 17:37
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Last targeted date I heard for sts-335 was 15dec, but that was still in the days of pres. Bush and everyone knew this date did not have much meaning and only had the merit of being in calendar year 2010. President Obama clarified that the deadline of finishing the program just means to wrap up, no dangerous hard deadline, so, if sts-135 or 335 would fly, it was already likely it'd be jan or maybe feb 2011; now, of course, it is understood that Atlantis post-sts132 processing flow will be on the back burner after initial safing is complete. There is a little bit of a crunch for the pad turnaround time for sts-132 as it was already mentioned, but it's still feasible, especially if the orbiter and the stack have no issues of their own. Then, chances are that what happens to the rest of the manifest is going to depend more upon weather and constraints than upon processing flows.
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#50
by
ChrisGebhardt
on 01 Mar, 2010 19:09
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Larry Sullivan is at the Press Site standing 30-some odd feet from ET-136 as it is now in tow to the VAB! He will have some amazing pics later tonight up in L2.
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#51
by
Chris Bergin
on 01 Mar, 2010 22:14
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#52
by
Ronsmytheiii
on 02 Mar, 2010 03:58
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#53
by
ChrisGebhardt
on 02 Mar, 2010 04:13
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Oh that first one's cool. Like the hand of the sun reaching down to touch the tank of Atlantis' final flight.
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#54
by
smith5se
on 02 Mar, 2010 04:25
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*sighs* I think this will be the mission I follow the most closely. Just seems a bit surreal; lovely ET images BTW!
Hopefully, as important as this mission is, it will be one of the most photographed processings, launches, mission, landing, etc...
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#55
by
psloss
on 02 Mar, 2010 11:18
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Hopefully, as important as this mission is, it will be one of the most photographed processings, launches, mission, landing, etc...
It will be...but then the two missions after that (assuming they're the last ones) will probably get even more attention.
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#56
by
psloss
on 02 Mar, 2010 14:13
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Last targeted date I heard for sts-335 was 15dec, but that was still in the days of pres. Bush and everyone knew this date did not have much meaning and only had the merit of being in calendar year 2010. President Obama clarified that the deadline of finishing the program just means to wrap up, no dangerous hard deadline, so, if sts-135 or 335 would fly, it was already likely it'd be jan or maybe feb 2011; now, of course, it is understood that Atlantis post-sts132 processing flow will be on the back burner after initial safing is complete.
The target date for 335 had been end of November. (It might still be, as that's right after the launch date beta angle cutout.)
Obama's proposal doesn't have a hard deadline, but the money allocated for Shuttle operations largely runs out at the end of the calendar year, including operating a 335 mission in the unlikely event that it is needed.
Processing of the 335 hardware elements, including Atlantis, will continue until LON for STS-133 is stood down -- that will require much more than initial safing of the orbiter. The boosters for the mission are likely to be stacked before LON is officially not needed, and by that time Atlantis will almost be ready for stacking.
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#57
by
daniela
on 02 Mar, 2010 14:39
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Yes! Of course the processing of Atlantis is going to continue till STS-335 is stood down (and at that point, it will probably be frozen for a few weeks). However the processing of the post-sts132 atlantis flow, even if it were not to be timely, is not going to cause delays to flights. This is going to be particularly important just after initial safing of Atlantis, because the payload of STS-134 is very interesting and is going to need stringent requirements and conditioning at the pad, lots of workers involved, etc. After return and initial safing of Endeavour, it'll be no problem to support the two parallel processings (STS-133 and LON) at a good pace. The "crunch" in between launch dates (which right now is mostly pad turnaround time between sts-131 and sts-132) if there will be any, is likely to be caused more by weather etc (they also are causing the sts-131 delay) than by technical issues or parallel processing.
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#58
by
psloss
on 02 Mar, 2010 15:07
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Yes! Of course the processing of Atlantis is going to continue till STS-335 is stood down (and at that point, it will probably be frozen for a few weeks). However the processing of the post-sts132 atlantis flow, even if it were not to be timely, is not going to cause delays to flights. This is going to be particularly important just after initial safing of Atlantis, because the payload of STS-134 is very interesting and is going to need stringent requirements and conditioning at the pad, lots of workers involved, etc.
Atlantis is not going to be carrying AMS to the station. After STS-132, she'll be prepared to carry a MPLM for STS-335. AMS and STS-134 processing is independent of this and will be done in parallel, as is standard.
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#59
by
daniela
on 02 Mar, 2010 16:02
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I apologize if what I wrote was not clear. I meant to say that processing for LON is going to proceed as a normal flow, but won't be allowed to interfere or delay the manifest; and the two tight-schedule bottlenecks at this time are: the pad turnaround sts-131 to sts-132 (actually fault of the weather) which may cause further delay of sts-132 but likely it'll be minor delays and with no downstream effect on the manifest; and the payload requirements of AMS-Endeavour-STS134 which is in parallel to Discovery processing for STS-133 and Atlantis processing for LON, these extra requirements and workload may (or may not) cause a couple weeks delay to the LON NET date, but, again, will hardly cause delays to the manifest.
Other than that, the weather, the beta angle, schedule conflicts/DDO, are likely to be the major players in determining launch dates and whether they slip or they hold.
I don't think I wrote Atlantis is going to carry AMS, if I did it's of course a wrong statement and a mistake (if you tell me where it is, I'll correct it).