An external tank arrived today from the Michoud Assembly Facility east of New Orleans. Plans were to unload the tank today and roll it to the Vehicle Assembly Building, said NASA spokesman George H. Diller.
After modifications, the tank will be used on an early December shuttle mission. It has aluminum brackets on a fuel line and technicians must replace the foam covering the brackets. On STS-118, a chunk of foam came loose from the bracket and damaged the thermal tile underneath Endeavour. A lighter foam will be used.
Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale said Friday in Houston that replacing the foam will not delay the flight.
"I feel very confident we'll be launching STS-122 on Dec. 6," said Hale during a press briefing.
Workers from Michoud will travel to Kennedy Space Center to replace the foam covering the aluminum brackets.
"It's all in the schedule and I don't see it being a problem for us," said Hale.
The STS-122 tank will be placed in high bay 4 and then moved to high bay 3, which has been unused due to work to fix corrosion damage on the doors. Two bays can then be used for shuttle processing, which will help NASA's plan to launch a shuttle about every other month until the program ends in 2010.
"That means we're going to pick up some time," said Diller.
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