Work in progress: Shuttle managers will resume discussions on Monday at 1 p.m. to determine Discovery's readiness to leave the Orbiter Process Facility. The orbiter's planned transfer to the Vehicle Assembly Building will now occur no earlier than Monday evening. The postponement accommodates unplanned work to repair a temperature sensor on Discovery's No. 2 nitrogen tank, in the orbiter's midbody.
Retests of Discovery's repaired and protected wiring are ongoing and will continue through the vertical processing flow. Several standard prelaunch tests will accommodate necessary functional and redundancy checks of the wiring. Once the orbiter, external tank and booster mating operations are complete, Space Shuttle Discovery will roll out to Launch Pad 39B. Rollout to the pad is currently slated for Sunday, Nov. 7.
Work in progress: Endeavour's wiring inspections, repair and protection installation continue. The orbiter payload premate test was completed Thursday. Tests on the auxiliary power unit wiring are in progress, as are Shuttle main engine controller verifications. Work on Endeavour's nose and main landing gear continues.
Work in progress: Shuttle managers announced today that the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-101 will occur no earlier than March 16. The wiring inspections and repair efforts that remaining on the orbiter, along with the unplanned replacement of the ammonia boiler will require time to accommodate the Shuttle's processing needs. Inspections of Atlantis' ammonia boiler this week revealed corrosion, which lead to the replacement decision.
Evaluation of the orbiter's damaged elevons continues. The damaged parts will be replaced over the next several days with no additional impact to the schedule. Installation of the right hand orbital maneuvering system pod occurs this week.
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