NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE PROCESSING STATUS REPORT: S06-013

April 14, 2006

Joe Pally
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-7239

Jessica Rye
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(321) 867-2468

STATUS REPORT: S06-013

NASA’S SPACE SHUTTLE PROCESSING STATUS REPORT: S06-013

NASA’s space shuttle fleet is housed and processed at Kennedy Space
Center, Fla.

Mission: STS-121 - 18th ISS Flight (ULF1.1) - Multi-Purpose Logistics
Module
Vehicle: Discovery (OV-103)
Location: Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3
Launch Date: Launch Planning Window July 1-19, 2006
Launch Pad: 39B
Crew: Lindsey, Kelly, Sellers, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson and Reiter
Inclination/Orbit Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

Technicians continue closing out areas of Discovery prior to its move
to the Vehicle Assembly Building, scheduled for May 12. The right and
left payload bay doors were opened earlier in the week in preparation
for reinstallation of the remote manipulator system, or “shuttle
arm.” The arm was transported from the lab in the Vehicle Assembly
Building to the processing facility on Wednesday and installed in the
vehicle today.

Friday program managers determined the space shuttle main engine in
position No. 2 will need to be replaced due to the possibility of a
crack in a solder joint in the controller. During the certification
of similar controllers, engineers observed cracking after thermal
testing of the units. The engine replacement has no impact on the
overall processing schedule.

Mission: STS-115 - 19th ISS Flight (12A) - P3/P4 Solar Arrays
Vehicle: Atlantis (OV-104)
Location: Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 1
Launch Date: No earlier than Aug. 28, 2006
Launch Pad: 39B
Crew: Jett, Ferguson, Tanner, Burbank, MacLean and Stefanyshyn-Piper
Inclination/Orbit Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

Technicians continue performing powered-up system testing on Atlantis
for its mission to the International Space Station. The external tank
door functional test is scheduled for early next week.

Crane operations removed and reinstalled the orbiter boom sensor
system in the payload bay of Atlantis on Wednesday for additional
work on the manipulator positioning mechanisms. The positioning
mechanisms are the pedestals that hold the boom in place in the
payload bay while the boom is not in use. The 50-foot-long boom
attaches to the shuttle arm and is one of the new safety measures
added prior to the Return to Flight mission that launched in July
2005.

Endeavour (OV-105)

Powered-up system testing continues on Endeavour in Orbiter Processing
Facility Bay 2 following an extensive modification period. On
Thursday, leak checks and functional tests were completed on the
liquid oxygen portion of the main propulsion system.

Technicians continue working on the positioning mechanisms for
Endeavour’s remote manipulator system in preparation for the arm’s
installation in the payload bay.

External Tank

Final closeouts continue in the Vehicle Assembly Building on the
external tank that will fly with Discovery on mission STS-121. On
Tuesday, crane operators lifted the tank from the checkout cell and
placed it in a horizontal position on the transporter in the transfer
aisle. Lockheed Martin employees are completing final work required
to close out the aft area of the tank in preparation for thermal
protection system foam application, scheduled for late next week.

Once the foam application is complete, the tank will be lifted from
the transporter and attached to the two solid rocket boosters already
stacked in high bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. That move is
scheduled for April 24.

For previous space shuttle processing status reports, visit:

www.nasa.gov/shuttle

-end-

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