24 April 2009

NASA is assessing the possibility of advancing the HST Servicing Mission by one day. There will be some military activity at the Cape beginning on 14May09 that will prevent a launch for about a week after that date so NASA wants to move the launch forward one day to 11May09 so they have a longer launch window. They say they will be ready to fly on that date but are not sure the Hubble scientists can have their toys ready by then. More assessments are being made today.

	Date	Time
Current	12May09	1331 EDT
Proposed	11May09	1401 EDT

Atlantis will launch to make the repairs/upgrades to HST. In the event that Atlantis is damaged by ET foam or space debris it can not go to ISS as a safe haven as the ISS construction flights plan to do. This is because HST orbits 100 miles higher than ISS and at a different orbital inclination and the shuttles don't have enough fuel to match orbits. So Endeavour, which is scheduled to fly the next ISS construction mission on 13Jun09 is on the adjacent launch pat ready to fly a rescue mission if necessary. It could take up to 25 days for that rescue to be accomplished. It will be a very long wait in a small space for the seven members of the Atlantis crew. I haven't seen anything on how they would be accommodated on board Endeavour with its four person rescue crew or how Atlantis would be safely ditched.

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