Space Shuttle Status Report December 1, 1999
Wednesday, December 1, 1999 (5:30 p.m. EST)
MISSION: STS-103 – 3rd Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission
VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103
LOCATION: Pad 39B
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: December 9 at 1:10 a.m. EST
TARGET LANDING DATE/TIME: December 18 at about 10:40 p.m. EST
LAUNCH WINDOW: 42 minutes
MISSION DURATION: about 9 days and 21 hours
CREW: Brown, Kelly, Smith, Foale, Grunsfeld, Nicollier, Clervoy
ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 317 nautical miles/28.45 degrees
Work in progress: Space Shuttle managers today completed a review of Shuttle
Discovery’s readiness for flight on mission STS-103. They maintained a
launch date of Dec. 9 for Discovery, although a further review of work
remaining to close-out Discovery for flight will be held later this week.
The launch date may be adjusted slightly pending the status of remaining
work that is reported at that time.
At the launch pad, workers completed replacement of Discovery’s mass memory
unit No. 1. Close-out work on the recently repaired orbiter/external tank
umbilical wiring harness continues as engineers conduct validation tests on
that system. Tonight, workers are slated to begin Shuttle ordnance
installation and replacement of a leaky quick disconnect on auxiliary power
unit No. 2 is planned for later this week. Routine orbiter aft compartment
close-outs continue along with wiring inspections.
MISSION: STS-99 – Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105
LOCATION: OPF bay 2
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: Jan. 13, 2000 at 1:11 p.m. EST
TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: Jan. 24, 2000 at 5:15 p.m. EST
LAUNCH WINDOW: 2 hours and 30 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: Workers in the OPF have completed wiring close-outs on
Orbiter Endeavour and the payload bay doors were closed last night.
Preparations are under way for Endeavour to roll to the Vehicle Assembly
Building Thursday at about 10 a.m. The orbiter will be mated to the
external tank and solid rocket boosters in VAB high bay 1Thursday night and
managers plan to transfer the Space Shuttle to Launch Pad 39A Dec. 7.
-end-
