Comments on: Shuttle launch postponed

By: DrFlimmer

DrFlimmer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:27:03 +0000

So the new launch date is set. Endeavour will (hopefully) launch on Wednesday and the LRO will launch on Thursday as the earliest, more likely Friday or Saturday.

Fingers crossed, let’s go!

By: Buzz Parsec

Buzz Parsec — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:10:02 +0000

It’s not the launch pad or the launch control rooms at Cape Canaveral or the people working on the launches, AFAIK. The issue is that the Air Force provides tracking and data relay from their down-range tracking stations, and it takes about 2 days for them to reconfigure to support a different launch. They are currently set up for the shuttle. The shuttle won’t be ready to launch until early Wednesday morning, and LRO is scheduled to launch Wednesday afternoon. LRO has to launch in the afternoon on Wed through Saturday or else wait until early July for the alignment between the Earth (and Florida) and the Moon to be correct for launching, and Endeavor has to launch early in the morning this week (Saturday is the last day) for the alignment between the launch pad and the ISS to be okay. After Saturday, they could launch, but there would be problems with heating while it was docked to the station, and they would have to cut off the mission early, so if they miss Saturday, they would have to wait until July 11 to launch. Meanwhile, Discovery is scheduled to launch on Aug 7, which would be cutting it close. And there are other Atlas flights waiting to use LRO’s pad, as well.

So the current choices are to launch LRO on Wed afternoon, and then launch Endeavor Saturday morning (2+ days later), or to launch Endeavor Wednesday morning and then launch LRO on either Friday or Saturday afternoon. (They could launch LRO on Friday because Endeavor would launch in the early morning, giving them about 2 1/4 days separation.) The 1st option only gives them one chance at each, since if LRO gets delayed by a day due to weather or a minor technical problem, they would miss the Saturday opportunity for Endeavor. The 2nd option gives them 2 chances for Endeavor (Wed and
Thursday), and, assuming it launches on Wednesday, 2 chances for LRO on Friday and Saturday (or one chance for LRO Saturday if Endeavor launches on Wednesday.) So my guess is they’ll go for that plan.

However, weather or a major technical problem (that takes more than a day to fix) would throw a total monkey wrench into either plan. So the plan is to start the countdowns on both, then put one or the other on hold at the appropriate point if no major problems arise during either of the countdowns, and only make the final decision when they have to, on Monday afternoon (2 days before the earliest possible LRO launch.)

I guess this is rocket science

P.S. Spaceflightnow.com has several good articles about this.

By: BigBob

BigBob — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:53:39 +0000

Mark Polansky on Twitter! Excellent. I see he’s sent a few tweets already, and explained how they will publish his on-orbit tweets despite the lack of live access. Cool.
BigBob

By: Sili

Sili — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:23:41 +0000

Thanks for the good replies.

I hadn’t an inkling the same hardware and personelle would be involved in two so different missions.

I just thought it didn’t make sense since they’re not using the same launchpad. (And I didn’t think it could be a spacey problem, since the Moon and the ISS are in … somewhat different orbits.)

By: Matthew Ota

Matthew Ota — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:57:35 +0000

Looks like the launch will be rescheduled for next Saturday. LRO launches on Wednesday

By: Reynold

Reynold — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:46:17 +0000

At least this isn't one of those times that woodpeckers were giving them grief, though there are some who would prefer that NASA itself instead of just the shuttles be scrapped!

By: In Other Words

In Other Words — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:26:33 +0000

Close. Very, Very Close

Every so often NASA has to pull the plug at the last second.
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