2000 KSC News Releases

MISSION: STS-99 -- Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)

VEHICLE

Endeavour/OV-105

LOCATION

Pad 39A

TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME

Jan. 31, 2000 at 12:47 p.m. EST

TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME

Feb. 11, 2000 at 4:55 p.m. EST

LAUNCH WINDOW

2 hours and 2 minutes

MISSION DURATION

11 days and 4 hours

CREW

Kregel, Gorie, Kavandi, Voss, Mohri, Thiele

ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION

126 nautical miles/57 degrees

Work in progress

At Launch Pad 39A, work continues in preparation for Monday's launch of Shuttle Endeavour. This week, workers completed Shuttle ordnance installation and the aft compartment doors were installed yesterday. Endeavour's reaction control and maneuvering systems have been pressurized for flight and early flight crew equipment stowage is complete.

Today at about noon, the STS-99 flight crew arrived at KSC to make final preparation for their upcoming flight. Over the next few days, crew members will review mission procedures, conduct test flights in the Shuttle Training Aircraft and undergo routine preflight medical exams. The launch countdown begins tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. and will be conducted in Control Room No. 3 in KSC's Launch Control Center.

The preliminary weather outlook indicates a 70 percent chance of favorable weather on launch day. The primary issues are the possibility of thick clouds and winds out of the northwest at 10- peaking to 15 knots. The temperature on Monday is expected to be about 60 degrees at launch time.

Processing Milestones

Launch countdown begins	Jan. 28 at 5:30 p.m.
Power reactant storage and distribution system loaded	Jan. 29
Rotating Service Structure retracted	Jan. 30 at about 6:30 p.m.)
External tank loading	Jan. 31, 4 – 7 a.m

Near Term Space Shuttle Manifest Brief:

To preserve an option to fly an additional Space Shuttle mission this year to perform maintenance on the International Space Station, Shuttle and Station managers today decided to formally plan a revision to the content of Shuttle mission STS-101. The planning will allow the orbiter Atlantis to visit the Station in April if needed, ahead of the arrival of the Russian Zvezda service module, to perform maintenance. However, managers could decide as late as March to return to the original planned content for STS-101 and eliminate the added mission based on the launch date selected for the Russian Zvezda service module by the Station program.

The option including a Station maintenance flight would distribute the original content of STS-101 between two Shuttle missions. The first mission, now targeted for launch no earlier than April 13 aboard Atlantis, will retain the STS-101 designation but be a 10-day long flight to perform maintenance on the International Space Station's Zarya and Unity modules. The second mission, which would be designated STS-106 and remains under review by managers, would be a Zvezda module outfitting mission that would dock with the Station about one month after Zvezda's launch.

The plan for near-term Shuttle and International
Space Station launches now includes:

Date	Mission/Vehicle	Payload
1/31/00	STS-99/Endeavour	Space Radar Topography Mission
NET 4/13/00	STS-101/Atlantis	ISS maintenance/Assembly Flt 2A.2a
TBD	ISS-1R/Proton	Zvezda service module/Assembly Flt 1R
TBD	Possible STS-106/TBD	ISS Zvezda outfitting/Assembly Flt 2A.2b
Whether or not STS-106 will be required and any necessary adjustments to the target launch dates for subsequent Shuttle flights will be dependent on the launch date scheduled for Zvezda. A launch date for Zvezda is expected to be selected following an International Space Station Joint Program Review to be held next month. The composition of crews for a revised STS-101 and STS-106 is under review.

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