Shuttle Atlantis Being Readied For August Launch

DarkNemesis618 writes "The Space Shuttle Atlantis was moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building today to begin the mating process to it's external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. Atlantis is scheduled to launch either August 27th or 28th, being only the 3rd launch since the Columbia tragedy in 2003. Atlantis is set to resume construction of the International Space Station by bringing up the second set of massive solar arrays needed for the laboratory modules that are to be added later on in the station's construction. Once the flight review is completed (Aug. 16), an exact date will be set for launch. Pending any problems, rollout to the launchpad is scheduled for July 31st."

Re:What about Endeavour?

[R3d M3rcury]

NASA's still working on it. [nasa.gov]

P3/P4 Truss and Solar Arrays

[Aglassis]

This should be an interesting mission mostly due to the complicated spacewalk required to install the P3/P4 truss segment [wikipedia.org] and its associated solar arrays. Currently the P5 truss and its solar arrays are mounted on the Z1 truss. The P3/P4 truss segment and its solar arrays need to go in between. I'm not exactly sure how they plan to do this but I would assume they are going to temporarily move the P5 truss and solar arrays to some temporary mounting point (perhaps they will retract the solar arrays if that is possible). Then they will install the P3/P4 truss and reinstall the P5 truss outboard (and extend the solar arrays).

Since the station has always had power from the P5 truss while it has been inhabited it will have to depend on temporary power from another source (such as the solar arrays on the Zvezda service module or the Zarya control module). This may add additional time constraints in this spacewalk. For fans of spacewalks this will be a blast! It will definitely be one of the most complicated spacewalks ever performed.

If you aren't a fan of spacewalks and complicated juggling tricks in space, this might be a boring mission for you.

Spacex vs. the shuttle

[WindBourne]

As happy as I am to see the shuttle flying, I wonder if NASA can not use spaceX's falcon 9 to speed things up; It holds 2x the cargo of the shuttle at a 1/10 of the cost. It would be nice to put up a double load.

Somewhere down the road, America needs to develop an automated system similar to progress.

Re:Spacex vs. the shuttle

[Geezle2]

One possible reason is that the Falcon 9 has never flown at all, much less in its maximum lift configuration. Even in this maximum lift configuration, it will only boost an extra ton into LEO over the Shuttle. I agree that the US's reliance on shuttle is the most braindead decision ever made in the US space program (would have saved tons of money and lives sticking with the Saturn V), but it is unfortunately the only thing flying right now that can do the job with the exception, perhaps, of Russia's Proton booster.

As an aside, NASA should threaten to subcontract out the remaining heavy lift operations to Russia and make a real big deal about it in the media. . .I'll bet that would free up funding for them to replace the shuttles with some real lift infrastructure!