14 DAY TRIAL // The American space agency announced yesterday that the space shuttle Endeavor would be moved to its Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39B on Friday, April 17th. The 4.2-mile-long track will take approximately 7 hours to complete aboard the crawler-transport, the second largest tracked vehicle in the world. According to the press release, the shuttle will begin to move out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at 12.01 EDT, and will reach its destination at around 19.00 EDT.
The agency also said that NASA TV would cover the proceedings from 0600 EDT to their end, and that reporters would have the possibility to take snapshots of the spacecraft in the early hours. Endeavor needs to be prepared as soon as possible, as its main role is to aid the STS-125 mission of its sister-ship Atlantis, in the event that something goes wrong while the seven crew members attempt to fix the Hubble Space Telescope landmark.
Endeavor's flight, if it will launch, will be tagged STS-400, and will be meant to rescue the astronauts on Atlantis in case a major problem occurs. NASA says that the new roll-out will create the rare scenario in which two space shuttles occupy both launch pads at the KSC.
When Atlantis is given permission to land, after the STS-125 mission, Endeavor will be moved to Launch Pad 39A and prepared for its STS-127 flight, during which the crew will deliver and install the two final components of the Japanese Experiment Module, namely the Exposed Facility (JEM EF) and the Exposed Section of the Experiment Logistics Module (ELM-ES).
On Friday, Endeavor was moved to the large Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), located at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The shuttle was taken out of its hangar and moved a bit closer to the launch complex, so that engineers could start priming it for a potential launch. Naturally, everyone hopes that Atlantis will never have to pass through an emergency, but officials at the agency are not about to take any chances, especially after Challenger and Columbia were lost.
Atlantis will carry two weeks’ worth of supplies and life support, so the seven members of the crew will have no problem enduring, if the issue they report does not affect the very structural integrity of the ship. NASA estimates that the risks of STS-125 going wrong are very small, but the delicate nature of the mission – namely the fact that the astronauts cannot dock on the ISS – has prompted extra precautions. This state of affairs will allow for Endeavor to be thoroughly prepared for the intervention. It will not be rushed to the rescue, and each of its “steps” will be carefully calculated.
