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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1996 (2:01 PM EST) KSC Public Affairs Contact: Bruce Buckingham (fax 407-867-2692) E-mail: Bruce.Buckingham-1@kmail.ksc.nasa.gov MISSION: STS-81 -- 5th MIR DOCKING & SPACEHAB DM (image) VEHICLE: Atlantis/OV-104 LOCATION: Vehicle Assembly Building TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: Jan. 12, 1997 at about 4:17 a.m. EST LAUNCH WINDOW: 7-10 minutes TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: Jan. 22, 1997 at about 7:52 a.m. MISSION DURATION: 10 days, 3 hours, 30 minutes CREW: Baker, Jett, Grunsfeld, Ivins, Wisoff, Linenger (up) Blaha (down) ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 184 statute miles/51.6 degrees NOTE: Atlantis is being prepared for rollout to Pad 39B tomorrow with first motion set for 11 a.m. EST. Hard mate to the external tank is complete and the Shuttle interface verification test will be finished today. Once Atlantis is at the pad, all three auxiliary power units will be "hot-fired" as a final test of the APU/hydraulic system pre-launch check-out. On Friday, the Spacehab payload was delivered to the pad's Payload Change-out Room. Payload installation into the orbiter is set for Thursday. KEY STS-81 OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): Roll out Shuttle Atlantis to Pad 39B (11 a.m. Tuesday) Hot fire all three auxiliary power units (Wednesday) Install Spacehab into payload bay (Thursday) Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (Dec. 16-17) MISSION: STS-82 -- HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SERVICING MISSION-2 VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103 LOCATION: Orbiter Processing Facility bay 2 TARGET LAUNCH DATE/TIME: February 13, 1997 at 2:59 a.m. LAUNCH WINDOW: 61 minutes TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: February 23, 1997 at 1:35 a.m. MISSION DURATION: 9 days, 22 hours CREW: Bowersox, Horowitz, Lee, Hawley, Harbaugh, Smith, Tanner ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 360 statute miles/28.45 degrees NOTE: The STS-82 crew visited KSC this past weekend taking part in the scheduled Crew Equipment Interface Test. The payload bay doors are scheduled to be closed Dec. 16. Stacking of the solid rocket boosters for mission STS-82 is complete. The external tank will be mated to the boosters on Tuesday in the Vehicle Assembly Building. KEY STS-82 OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): Mate external tank to solid rocket booster (Tuesday) Close payload bay doors (Dec. 16) MISSION: STS-83 -- Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 VEHICLE: Columbia/OV-102 LOCATION: Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1 TARGET LAUNCH DATE/TIME: March 27 at 2:19 p.m. EST LAUNCH WINDOW: 2 hours, 30 minutes TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: April 12 at 7:47 a.m. EST MISSION DURATION: 16 days CREW: Halsell, Still, Voss, Thomas, Gernhardt, Linteris, Crouch ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 184 statute miles/28.45 degrees NOTE: Following Saturday's landing, Columbia was towed to Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1 where it was spotted at about 1 p.m. Over the weekend, the residual cryogenic reactants were off-loaded from the orbiter's storage tanks and the mid-deck experiments were removed. Access to the aft engine compartment is in work today. Tonight, the payload bay doors will be opened and access to the 'B' airlock hatch will be established. Troubleshooting on the hatch will take priority tomorrow with crews working from inside the payload bay and the crew compartment to evaluate the hatch problem. On Wednesday, the ORFEUS-SPAS and Wake Shield Facility payloads are scheduled to be removed. KEY STS-83 OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): Remove STS-80 payloads (Wednesday)--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). The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription. To remove your name from the list at any time, send an e-mail address to domo@news.ksc.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the subject line), type (no quotes) "unsubscribe shuttle-status", or "unsubscribe ksc-press-release." Status reports and other NASA publications are available on the World Wide Web at: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/kscpao.htm