Status Report

Space Shuttle Status Report 15 Jan 2001

By SpaceRef Editor
January 15, 2001
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After additional testing and analysis of Solid Rocket Booster cables
throughout the Shuttle fleet, Shuttle Program officials decided late today
to return Atlantis to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space
Center to conduct further inspections.

Because of the uncertainty involving the integrity of the SRB cables,
Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore ordered Atlantis to be rolled back to
the Vehicle Assembly Building later this week for more inspections. The
rollback is scheduled to take place Friday.

The rollback was ordered prior to the planned start of the countdown early
Tuesday for Atlantis’ scheduled launch January 19 to deliver the U.S.
Laboratory Destiny to the International Space Station. The launch will be
delayed until no earlier than February 6. Atlantis’ five astronauts were
informed of the rollback decision prior to their departure from Ellington
Field in Houston for KSC. They will come out of quarantine to resume
training for their mission.

As a result of the rollback decision, Destiny will be removed from Atlantis’
payload bay Thursday and will remain in the payload change out room at
Launch Pad 39-A.

Pending the results of the cable inspections, which will begin this weekend,
Atlantis could return to the launch pad around January 25 to resume
pre-launch preparations.

Atlantis’ launch delay will have some impact on the scheduled March 1 launch
of Discovery on the STS-102 / 5A.1 mission to the International Space
Station. Shuttle program officials will be assessing the potential launch
impact over the next few weeks.

SpaceRef staff editor.