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| Image above: In highbay 1 inside the Vehicle Assembly
Building, technicians begin to carefully sand away the red dye that
has been applied to the external tank to help expose cracks or compression
dents. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossman |
On Sunday, Atlantis rolled from Launch Pad 39A to the Vehicle Assembly
Building, where employees spent the week positioning platforms around
the shuttle to allow for inspections and repairs to hail-damaged areas.
Inspections of the external tank are expected to be completed next week.
Some foam sanding has begun in the nose cone area of the tank.
Inspections are finished for the solid rocket boosters and nearly complete
for the orbiter, with 20 of 28 hail-damaged areas, all on the left side
of the vehicle, already repaired.
A new target launch date has not been determined, but teams will focus
on preparing Atlantis for liftoff in late April.
Mission STS-117 to the International Space Station will be scheduled
sometime after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft returns from the station. The
Soyuz is delivering new station crew members and returning others to Earth
in late April. Adequate time is needed between the Soyuz undocking and
the shuttle's arrival to the station.
During the 11-day mission, the six-member crew will install a new truss
segment, retract a set of solar arrays and unfold a new set on the starboard
side of the station. Lessons learned from two previous missions will provide
the astronauts with new techniques and tools to perform their duties.
Atlantis Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialists
Jim Reilly, Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson and John "Danny"
Olivas will continue training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
as they await a new target launch date.
The STS-117 flight crew will return to Kennedy Space Center a few days
before launch.
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