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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT MONDAY, JULY 1, 1996 (11:07 AM EDT) KSC Public Affairs Contact: Bruce Buckingham (fax 407-867-2692) E-mail: Bruce.Buckingham-1@kmail.ksc.nasa.gov MISSION: STS-78 -- LIFE AND MICROGRAVITY SPACELAB (LMS) Flight Day 12 VEHICLE: Columbia/OV-102 LOCATION: Orbit OFFICIAL LAUNCH DATE/TIME: June 20 at 10:49 a.m. (EDT) TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: July 7 at about 8:38 a.m. MISSION DURATION: 16 days, 21 hours, 49 minutes CREW SIZE: 7 ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 173 statute miles/39 degrees NOTE: Mission managers this weekend officially approved the extension day for mission STS-78 and targeted Columbia's KSC landing at about 8:38 a.m. on July 7. A landing at this time will break by about seven hours the Shuttle mission duration record currently held by Endeavour on mission STS-67. The crew of mission STS-78 are: Commander Tom Henricks; Pilot Kevin Kregel; Mission Specialists Richard Linnehan, Susan Helms and Charles Brady; and Payload Specialists Jean-Jacques Favier (French Space Agency) and Robert Brent Thirsk (Canadian Space Agency). MISSION: STS-79 -- 4th MIR DOCKING & SPACEHAB DM VEHICLE: Atlantis/OV-104 LOCATION: Pad 39A TARGET LAUNCH DATE/TIME: July 31 at about 11:29 p.m. (EDT) LAUNCH WINDOW: 7-10 minutes TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: August 9 at about 8:05 p.m. MISSION DURATION: 8 days, 20 hours, 35 minutes CREW SIZE: 6 ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 196-245 statute miles/51.6 degrees NOTE: Space Shuttle Atlantis was rolled out to Pad 39A today with first motion from the Vehicle Assembly Building occurring at 10:30 p.m. yesterday. The vehicle was hard down on the pad by 5 a.m. today. A hot fire of the no. 3 auxiliary power unit will occur this afternoon and the Rotating Service Structure will be moved into position around the vehicle at about 8 p.m. KEY STS-79 OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): Main engine flight readiness test (Tuesday-Wednesday) Helium signature leak checks (July 8) Install Spacehab into orbiter at pad (July 9) STS-79 Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (July 18-19) Close payload bay doors for flight (July 18) MISSION: STS-82 -- HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SERVICING MISSION - 2 VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103 LOCATION: Orbiter Processing Facility bay 2 TARGET LAUNCH DATE: February 13, 1997 LAUNCH WINDOW: 61 minutes TARGET KSC LANDING DATE: February 23, 1997 MISSION DURATION: 9 days, 22 hours CREW SIZE: 7 ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 360 statute miles/28.45 degrees NOTE: Discovery returned to KSC on Saturday, June 29, after traveling two days on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) from Palmdale, CA, where a series of modifications and thorough inspections were conducted as part of a regularly scheduled Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP), an operation that periodically removes all orbiters from flight operations. Discovery, bolted to the top of the SCA, departed Palmdale at 10 a.m. EDT Friday, June 28, and stopped at Altus Air Force Base, OK, for refueling. The ferry flight then continued to Robins Air Force Base, GA, where it remained over night. At about 9 a.m. Saturday, Discovery left Robins and landed at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility on runway 33 at about 9:55 a.m. Discovery was removed from the SCA and towed to OPF bay 2 about 3 a.m. Sunday. In the OPF, preparations will begin for Discovery's next flight, mission STS-82, the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, set for launch in February 1997. KEY OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): Begin access to aft, mid-body and crew module (Tuesday) PREPARATIONS FOR ORBITER MAINTENANCE DOWN PERIOD VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105 LOCATION: Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3 NOTE: Last week the forward reaction control system and the left hand orbital maneuvering system pod were removed. Today, work to remove the right hand orbital maneuvering system pod is in work. Endeavour is being prepared for its first Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) which involves sending the orbiter to Palmdale, CA, for about eight months of major modifications and structural inspections. Delivery to Palmdale will occur around the first of August. Endeavour's next mission will be the first International Space Station assembly Space Shuttle flight, scheduled for launch from KSC in late 1997. KEY PRE-OMDP OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): Final payload bay closing (July 12) Rollout for ferry flight to Palmdale, CA (July 29)-- end -- For automatic e-mail subscriptions to this daily Shuttle status report or KSC originated press releases, send an Internet electronic mail message to: domo@news.ksc.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the subject line) type the words "subscribe shuttle-status" or "subscribe ksc-press-release" (do not use quotation marks). 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