Atlantis Set For Rollout After Tile Repair Work

Shuttle Atlantis is undergoing final rollout preparations in the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building after the completion today of repairs to a damaged heat shield tile on the belly of the orbiter.

Rollout remains scheduled for 12:01 a.m. next Tuesday. The overnight move to launch pad 39A is a key milestone in preparations for the planned May 12 launch of Atlantis and seven astronauts on a fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

The tile damage was done earlier this week when technicians accidentally dropped a small socket as they were tightening bolts on a v-shaped bipod strut that connects the nose of the orbiter with the shuttle's external tank.

The socket bounced off an external tank cross beam and dinged a tile between two umbilicals that route a half-million gallons of supercold propellant from the 15-story tank to the ship's three main engines.

The damaged area measured about an inch and a quarter in length and width, and a quarter-inch deep. NASA contractor technicians filled the gouge with putty and smooth it out to maintain the aerodynamic outer mold line of the vehicle.

Other preparations for the mission also remain on track.

A refurbished Hubble science instrument control and data handling unit is scheduled to arrive at KSC on Monday morning. A planned launch last fall was scrapped when the unit on Hubble failed. An on-time delivery of the refurbished unit is critical to maintaining the May 12 launch date.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge the NASA image of the orbiter Atlantis being lowered alongside an external tank and onto a mobile launcher platform in High Bay 3 of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. You can also click on the enlarged image to get an even bigger view. Photo Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.