Atlantis lifts off on what was to be her final flight in May 2010. Photo Credit/NASA Photo
Shuttle program managers took a major step Thursday in their plans to launch an additional shuttle mission to the International Space Station this year, using Atlantis.
Currently, Discovery’s long-delayed station assembly mission is set to lift off on Feb. 24. Endeavour, the final scheduled shuttle mission, is to fly on April 19.
Thursday’s decision by shuttle managers “baselines” an 11-day mission by Atlantis, with a lift off on June 28. However, Atlantis and her crew of four could actually fly in late August in order to make sure the six-person station is well stocked with supplies and spare parts as the shuttle program retires.
Mission funding is an issue.
Like most federal agencies NASA is operating under restrictions that limit spending to 2010 levels through March 4. The restrictions ensure adequate funding for the Discovery and Endeavour missions, but don’t guarantee the Atlantis flight, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations said earlier this month.
Veteran astronaut Chris Ferguson would lead a crew that includes pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus.
Atlantis would carry Rafaello, a supply laden Multipurpose Logistics Module, and an experimental robotic spacecraft refueling system.
NASA would like the Atlantis astronauts to retrieve an external space station cooling system pump that broke down last summer.
The failed pump forced the station’s astronauts to shut down half of the solar power distribution system until the faulty hardware could be replaced.
Once back on the Earth, the faulty pump could be disassembled by engineers to determine the cause of the breakdown. Newer pumps could be modified to prevent another serious failure.
