Atlantis pilot Doug Hurley, commander Chris Ferguson, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim, pictured left to right, confer during training at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Photo Credit/NASA/Houston Chronicle/Smiley Pool
Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson and the rest of NASA’s final shuttle mission crew are at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week for traditional safety training and a full dress rehearsal of the countdown that is expected to send them hurtling into orbit aboard the orbiter Atlantis next month.
The launching of the 12-day supply mission to the International Space Station is tentatively set for July 8 at 11:26 a.m., EDT.
“We are just trying to savor the moment,” Ferguson told news media gathered at Kennedy on Monday to greet the four astronauts as they landed in T-38 training jets dispatched from Houston’s Ellington Field. “I think I speak on behalf of the crew and everyone in the Astronaut Office and I’m sure here at KSC.”
Atlantis will transport enough food, clothing, spare parts and research gear to keep the station fully staffed with six astronauts through 2012. NASA is hoping the large shuttle cargo will offer some breathing room to the agency’s emerging Commercial Orbital Transportation Services partners, Space X and Orbital Sciences Corp. Each plans to make its first cargo deliveries to the station by the end of 2011.
“As our children and our children’s children ask us, we want to be able to say we remember when there was a space shuttle,” said Ferguson.
During their Kennedy training session, the Atlantis astronauts will receive instruction on how to escape from their launch pad in the event of a fire or chemical spill. That means driving an armored troop transport, identifying a safety bunker and the location of helicopter evacuation pads. Ferguson and his crew will board Atlantis in their launch and entry suits on Thursday to run through the final hours of their countdown.
In the meantime, launch pad technicians are X-raying the shuttle’s External Fuel Tank. The ET underwent a test last Thursday in which it was filled with more than 500,000 gallons of chilled rocket propellants . The X-ray scans will reveal whether long ET support beams called “stringers” cracked in response to the cyrogenic temperatures. Initial inspections revealed no sign of damage.
Technicians are also replacing a hydrogen valve on the shuttle’s No. 3 main engine this week. The valve showed a small leak during the fueling test.
Top NASA managers are scheduled to meet June 28 for a Flight Readiness Review to discuss mission preparations and establish an official launch date.