Editor's note: updated at 3:45 p.m.NASA expects shuttle Atlantis to be ready as early as Sunday for a ferry flight home from California.
About 100 Kennedy Space Center technicians and engineers this week will travel to Edwards Air Force Base to help prepare Atlantis for the flight atop a modified Boeing 747, joining roughly 50 more who were stationed there for the orbiter's landing Sunday morning.
All the work to return a shuttle from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards adds about $1.8 million to the cost of a shuttle mission, according to the agency.
Here's a basic breakdown:
-- $1.15 million: Processing to drain shuttle systems of propellants and prepare the vehicle for a ferry flight, inclduing the cost of travel, lodging and overtime for dozens of contractors.
-- $354,000: Operation of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and a pathfinder aircraft.
-- $125,000: Travel for civil service employees.
-- $140,000: Support provided by Dryden, including security.
The space shuttle program budgets for the cost, which any mission could incur, but the program could use the money for other purposes if a shuttle landed at its home port, KSC.
After waiting for bad weather at KSC to clear Friday and Saturday, mission managers on Sunday finally directed Atlantis and seven astronauts to end their successful final voyage to the Hubble Space Telescope with a touchdown at Edwards.
Workers there will make sure the spaceship is safe for the upcoming cross-country flight, including drying its tanks, engines and thrusters of residual propellants, among other tasks.
On Monday, the orbiter was hoisted into a gantry-like structure called the "Mate-Demate Device" for servicing prior to being attached to the jumbo jet, one of two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft NASA can use to ferry orbiters. The trip home to KSC is expected to take two days, weather permitting.
Meanwhile, work continues at KSC to ready shuttle Endeavour for its planned Saturday morning move to launch pad 39A.
Some steps taken so Endeavour could be ready to launch quickly from pad 39B for a rescue of the Atlantis crew must now be undone, like disconnection of the explosive devices that would separate the orbiter from its mobile launcher platform, external tank and solid rocket boosters. Endeavour is targeted to launch June 13 to the International Space Station, on a 16-day mission that will complete assembly of the Japanese Kibo lab complex.
At pad 39A, Endeavour's cargo was transferred Monday from a canister into the launch complex's Payload Changeout Room, an environmentally controlled storage facility mirroring a shuttle's payload bay.
Workers today are spraying Fondue Fyre, a flame-resistant, concrete-like material, on a 25-square-foot area of a flame trench deflector that was damaged during the May 11 launch of Atlantis. Damaged pneumatic lines have been repaired, and the pad fixes are not expected to impact Endeavour's launch date.
Shuttle program managers are set to meet Wednesday by video conference for a preliminary review of Endeavour's readiness. An executive flight readiness review scheduled June 3 at KSC will officially set the launch date.
The seven Atlantis astronauts, led by mission commander Scott Altman, today are scheduled to participate in a 5 p.m. EDT welcome ceremony at Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center in Houston.
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the images. First: Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed up a taxiway at Edwards Air Force Base to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center after landing at Edwards to conclude the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission May 24. Credit: NASA/Jim Ross. Second: On Dec. 1, 2008, shuttle Endeavour is nestled in the Mate-DeMate Device at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center as deservicing and turnaround operations get underway for its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Tony Landis. Third: At Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on May 22, a crane lifted the canister containing the payload for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission into the Payload Changeout Room. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett. Fourth: In launch pad 39A's flame trench at Kennedy Space Center on May 13, workers documented damage found after May 11 launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-125 mission. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
5 comments:
Well... press conferences Thursday, rollover Saturday, ferry on Sunday... it's going to be a "fun" weekend for those of us who also plan on being at a space conference in Orlando. I can't wait for the ferry though. That's one of the coolest things to watch in the world.
Yep...I haven't seen a launch or landing, but I did see Challenger return to KSC in April 1984 after the 41-C mission. I was at KSC on the first full day of our vacation hoping to see a landing, but was able to see the ferry back on the last full day of our vacation.
Why not just leave it there?
Anonymous: Atlantis still has two more flights scheduled, and it can only launch from Florida. Maybe they can leave it out west after the last flight. But even then, a lot of work will need to be done to decomission the orbiters. Eventually, they're headed for display in museums.
What a rush it'd be to ride as a passenger from Edwards to KSC aboard the shuttle itself. Talk about flying in first class! Seriously, though: Good luck to those involved in bringing the bird home. Here's hoping it's a daytime landing, and that the mission gives us all a fly-by along Brevard's beaches. If our government can spend $350K to send Air Force One flying over NY for a photo op, surely the few bucks it would cost to loop over the Space Coast would be money well (or at least better) spent.
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