Russians help Atlantis with earlier launch

The Russian Federal Space Agency has moved up its Progress cargo module launch from Feb. 7 to Feb. 5, which enables both Atlantis on STS-122 and Endeavour on STS-123 to launch before the next Russian Soyuz mission in early April.

This allows astronauts assigned to the space station's Expedition 16 crew to complete tasks they have trained for, including support of the launch and docking of Jules Verne, the first European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle.

Launching Atlantis at 2:47 p.m. EST on Feb. 7 also allows time to complete modifications to the engine cutoff sensor system. Intermittent readings blamed on a faulty connector have scrubbed two launch attempts in December.

While Atlantis will launch on Feb. 7, Endeavour's launch has slipped from Feb. 14 to mid-March. This schedule would make up lost time and return NASA to an April 24 launch date for Discovery. This re-establishes a launch schedule designed to fly 13 missions before the shuttle program ends in 2010.

Technicians today were preparing the connector for installation on Atlantis' external tank around mid-day Saturday, NASA spokesman Candrea Thomas said.

In the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC, the external tank for Endeavour's next mission was mated with the solid rocket boosters Thursday. Work to remove and replace the feed-through connector on that external tank will be done at the same time the stack is tested in preparation for space shuttle Endeavour to be mated with the stack later this month.