Space Debris is Top Risk For Atlantis

Damage from micrometeoroids or orbiting debris, known as MMOD, is the top risk facing Atlantis on its mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, shuttle program managers said during briefings today.

The risk of catastrophic damage to Atlantis may be high enough - greater than a 1 in 200 probability - that it would require a waiver from senior NASA officials to fly.

But officials still consider it highly unlikely that Atlantis, scheduled to launch Oct. 10 from Kennedy Space Center, would sustain damage severe enough to require Endeavour to fly a rescue mission. Endeavour will be on standby on launch pad 39B in the event that a rescue flight is ordered.

"We don't expect to use it, but we feel very comfortable we could," said John Shannon, shuttle program manager, at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Shannon said the agency's decision to launch Atlantis would likely be based on a thorough review of efforts to mitigate risk, not a somewhat arbitrary risk level number.

Continue to watch NASA's STS-125 press briefings today and tomorrow here at The Flame Trench.

We'll carry all of the televised events from the preflight briefings.

You'll be able to see everything from recorded video of the preparations for launch to interviews with mission managers, Hubble scientists and the crew. The live feeds will continue through tomorrow.

Above, you can see the latest live shot from the launch pad on the left and the latest screen capture from NASA Television on the right. Click the NASA TV image on the right to go to a larger version and click here to open a separate NASA TV player window that you can leave up in the corner of your screen to watch the briefings all day.

Here's the detailed schedule of briefings for today and tomorrow.

Monday:
8 a.m. - STS-125 Video B-Roll Feed
9 a.m. - NASA Overview
10 a.m. - Shuttle Program Overview
11 a.m. - Hubble Space Telescope Program Overview
12:30 p.m. - NASA TV Video File
1 p.m. - Hubble Space Telescope Science Overview

Tuesday:
9 a.m. - STS-125 Video B-Roll Feed
10 a.m. - STS-125 Mission Overview
11:30 a.m. - STS-125 Spacewalk Overview
1 p.m. - NASA TV Video File
2 p.m. - STS-125 Crew News Conference