I just got an email indicating that the Hubble mission has been delayed until February. So they've got two orbiters sitting on the pad, neither of which is configured for an ISS mission. Will they be able to accelerate the next planned one, or does this mean more delays for ISS completion (and Shuttle retirement, assuming that they go ahead with it)?
STS-126 is being moved up to Nov 16th, see here.
Last I read they're going to more Atlantis to the VAB and move Endeavour to 39A because 39B's changeout room no longer works. Preparing the pad for Ares and all that.
Because of Soyuz flights, angles, orbits, etc there is a chance the Hubble mission might not go until next spring. Also one of the planned fixes might get bumped to fix the latest breakage on Hubble because its more important. Depending on EVA scheds, etc.
From the Space.com article:
"We've got a lot of options here. I don't see [NASA officials] Ed Weiler and Mike Griffin or myself throwing in the towel because we've got to spend a few more tens of millions to pull this mission off.
This is epic. A few more tens millions here and there, soon we would be talking real money...
Not only does this impact ISS, it also throws the whole Ares 1-X into a major tailspin because they can not turn the pad over and have two shuttles ready for a Hubble repair and rescue mission.
Not only does this impact ISS, it also throws the whole Ares 1-X into a major tailspin because they can not turn the pad over and have two shuttles ready for a Hubble repair and rescue mission.
Gee, what a shame. Because it was going to be such a...valuable...test, you know?
Good thing we know the Falcon 1 works. Let's go Falcon 9 & Dragon!
I couldn't even get Bill Harwood (until recently) to tell me why Endeavor had been moved to Pad 39B anyway. After all, we all know 39B was used for a Shuttle 2 years ago for the last time when we watched that great night launch during the colder months when the humidity is low and the view is even more amazing than normal - for those like me lucky enough to watch it. Turns out they believe the wiring and electronics and supporting relays on Pad 39B are still operational, even though the pad hasn't had a functional test for a while, or any meaningful maintenance for longer than that. What is not operational is the rotating "payload support" structure, but for a rescue mission, no one believed it would be needed anyway.
Atlantis will be rolled back to the VAB, probably removed from the Stack (ET / SRB's) and Discovery will probably be attached. Problem is there are only two crawlers and 3 Shuttles, and so playing Musical Shuttles is very hard, so they'll almost have to do this switch-out between Atlantis and Discovery since Discovery is next up, and Atlantis is not as well configured as Discovery and Endeavor are to operate with the station. In other words, it is too hard to simply reconfigure Atlantis for an ISIS mission. Easier just to pull Atlantis off and throw Discovery on that stack. Meanwhile, Endeavor will be rolled back to the split where the crawler tracks join the road back to the VAB, and will then go the other way on out to Pad 39A. This is actually a longer trip to Pad 39A from Pad 39B than it is from the VAB.