KSC Contact: Joel Wells
Tuesday, November 2, 1999 (10:30 AM EDT)
MISSION: STS-103 – 3rd Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission
VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103
LOCATION: OPF bay 1
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: Dec. 2 at 4:31 a.m. EST
TARGET LANDING DATE/TIME: Dec. 12 at 2:38 a.m. EST
LAUNCH WINDOW: 42 minutes
MISSION DURATION: 9 days, 22 hours and 7 minutes
CREW: Brown, Kelly, Smith, Foale, Grunsfeld, Nicollier, Clervoy
ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 317 nautical miles/28.45 degrees
Work in progress: Yesterday, Shuttle managers concluded the orbiter rollout
review for Shuttle Discovery. However, the decision to proceed with
prelaunch processing for mission STS-103 will not be made until after a
preflight readiness review which starts today at 2 p.m. Top Shuttle
managers are assembling for the meeting at Johnson Space Center to conduct a
thorough review of Shuttle wiring assessments and corrective actions taken
before transferring Discovery out of the Orbiter Processing Facility.
Wiring repair and protection efforts are complete and the payload bay doors
are closed. Repairs on Discovery’s No. 2 nitrogen tank are complete and
tests indicate that the temperature sensor is in working order. Aft
compartment close-outs and structural leak tests are complete and weight and
center of gravity tests were conducted yesterday. Preparations are under
way to support Discovery’s rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building as
early as 10 a.m. tomorrow, but a decision to roll will not be made until
after the Shuttle wiring review.
-end-
