Despite Ike, Astronauts Aim To Train

The Atlantis astronauts aim to fly to Kennedy Space Center next week and take part in a critical practice countdown -- a sign that preps for a planned Oct. 10 launch remain on schedule despite damage done by Hurricane Ike last weekend at Johnson Space Center and surrounding communities.

Final details are being worked out, but veteran astronaut Scott Altman and his Hubble Space Telescope repair crew intend to fly to NASA's prime launch operations center for their Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test.

The status of the important crew training exercise has been in doubt since Ike made landfall in coastal Texas last Saturday and then battered JSC -- the home of NASA's Mission Control and its Astronaut Corps -- as well as surrounding communities.

JSC is expected to be closed the entire week to all but recovery crews, and the NASA T-38s that astronauts fly between Texas and Florida's Space Coast were scrambled to Abilene in advance of the storm.

If the astronauts are able to stick to the existing schedule, then they'll arrive at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Joining Altman on the trip would be Atlantis pilot Gregory "Ray J" Johnson and mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Mike Good, Andrew Feustel and Megan McArthur.

On Tuesday, the astronauts would head out to pad 39A -- the site where Atlantis is being readied for launch -- and take part in emergency training there.

The idea is to get the crew familiar with the tower's emergency escape system -- a series of seven metal baskets designed to slide down a 1,200-foot

On Wednesday, Altman and his crew would don bright orange launch-and-entry suits in crew quarters at the KSC Operations & Checkout Building and then board the NASA AstroVan for the a trip to the pad.

The crew would ride an elevator up to the 195-foot-level of the gantry and then cross a grated metal access arm before climbing through the side hatch of the orbiter into the shuttle's two-level crew cabin.

Some 150 engineers will be staffing the NASA Launch Control Center when the astronauts board the ship for the launch-day dress rehearsal. Meanwhile, the effort to ready sisterhip Endeavour for a rollout to pad 39B remains on track. Look for the move to begin at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. The 4.2-mile trip to pad B is expected to take six to eight hours to complete.

The rollout will mark the first time shuttles have been on KSC's twin pads simultaneously since the summer of 2001. Endeavour is being prepared for a Nov. 12 launch on an International Space Station outfitting mission. But the ship will be on stand-by in case a rescue mission must be launched to save the Hubble repair crew.

NOTE ON IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save the NASA-JSC image of three members of the Atlantis crew strapping into the middeck of a shuttle simulator for a training exercise at Johnson Space Center. Then click the enlarged image to get an even bigger view that shows Atlantis mission specialists (left) Andrew Feustal, Mike Massimino (center) and John Grunsfeld (right). Photo credit: NASA. You can also click to enlarge and save the NASA images of shuttle Atlantis on pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. And if you click the enlarged image, you get an even bigger -- awesome -- view. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.