NASA contractors launched an effort this week to stack the twin solid rocket boosters that will propel Endeavour on what now is the final scheduled shuttle mission, which is set to blast off from Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 26.The aft booster segment of the lefthand solid rocket booster was lifted into High Bay 1 of the Vehicle Assembly Building during on Monday. The aft booster segment of the righthand SRB is scheduled to be hoisted into the high bay by crane operators during second shift today.
The stacking operation is expected to take about 20 days to complete. The twin boosters will stand 149 feet tall atop a mobile launcher platform once the work is complete.
Endeavour and a crew of six astronauts are slated to blast off from launch pad 39A at 4:19 p.m. Feb. 26, the middle of a 10-minute opportunity to put the shuttle on course for a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station. The astronauts will deliver a supply-filled logistics carrier and large spare parts along with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a large particle physics experiment that will be mounted on the outpost's central truss.
The crew includes commander Mark Kelly, pilot Gregory H. Johnson, and mission specialists Andrew Feustel, Michael Fincke, Gregory Chamitoff, and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency.
NASA is lobbying for one additional shuttle flight next June but as it stands, the STS-134 mission is the grand finale for the 29-year-old shuttle program.
1 comment:
I guess this building will be one of the first to be mothballed then.
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