Pump package swapped out on Atlantis

NASA contractor technicians are testing a new cooling system pump package on shuttle Atlantis after replacing a unit that was damaged during routine launch processing in early February.

Part of the shuttle's Environmental Control and Life Support System, the cooling system essentially provides air conditioning within the shuttle's crew cabin.

The pump package that was replaced was damaged when workers inadvertently overpressurized a coolant loop during leak checks. A second pump package also was damaged but it was repaired rather than replaced.

The damage came amid a string of recent launch processing incidents that prompted a safety standdown at Kennedy Space Center earlier this month.

Atlantis is tentatively scheduled for launch around August 28 on a mission that will mark the post-Columbia resumption of International Space Station assembly.