KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SPACE
SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2000 (12:30 PM EST)

MISSION: STS-99 — Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
  • VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105
  • LOCATION: Pad 39A
  • TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: NET Feb. 9, 2000 at 12:08 p.m. EST
  • TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: Feb. 20, 2000 at 4:16 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: Following the scrub of Shuttle Endeavour’s launch yesterday, Shuttle managers decided in an overnight meeting to replace the enhanced master events controller (EMEC) located in the orbiter’s aft compartment. During Monday’s launch countdown, Endeavour’s EMEC No. 2 failed a standard preflight test.

Engineers have not been able to reproduce the problem and are continuing their evaluation. Preliminary analysis and testing indicates a possible hardware problem within the unit. The unit weighs 65 pounds, is approximately 20 inches long, 13 inches wide and 8 inches tall. A spare is available at KSC and today workers are testing the replacement EMEC unit.

Before workers can begin EMEC replacement efforts at the launch pad, cryogenic reactants must be offloaded from the orbiter and Space Shuttle ordnance disconnected. That work is planned for tomorrow. EMEC No. 2 removal begins late tomorrow and managers expect installation and retest efforts to be complete late Thursday night. Friday, workers will reconnect Shuttle ordnance and aft compartment close-outs will conclude over the weekend. Launch controllers will be in a posture to begin the 43-hour launch countdown Sunday morning and ready to support a launch as early as Feb. 9, pending availability of the Eastern Range to support launch.

The STS-99 astronauts will return to Houston tomorrow with departure currently planned for 10 a.m. Commander Kregel and Pilot Gorie will depart from the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility and the rest of the crew will depart from Patrick Air Force Base. The flight crew will return to KSC four days prior to launch.

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