Camera views of STS-98 Atlantis
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STS-98 Liftoff Status Page

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Shuttle Atlantis Launch Status

February 7, 2001, 6:13 p.m. EST KSC Launch window was 4 minutes, 48 seconds.

On Wednesday, February 7, 2001, Loading of the external tank was scheduled to begin at 9:16 a.m. but began early at 8:45 a.m. and was in stable replenish mode by 12:30 p.m. Forecasters initially indicated a 10 percent chance of KSC weather violating launch commit criteria on Wednesday but upgraded that to a 100 percent chance of favorable weather. The only issues worked during the countdown were concerns over weather at the TAL sites in Spain and Morocco. At 2:30 p.m, the crew left the O&C building and proceeded to Pad 39-A. By shortly after 4:00pm, the crew hatch was closed and locked for flight. At 5:49 p.m. the launch team discussed concerns about an irregular voltage measurement on one of Atlantis's MDM's but decided it was a sensor issue. Launch occured 2 minutes after the planned liftoff time.

On Tuesday, February 6, 2001, the KSC launch team proceed on schedule with STS-98 launch preparations. Monday night, workers loaded cryogenic reactants into Space Shuttle Atlantis' onboard storage tanks and Shuttle pyrotechnic tests concluded that afternoon. At the launch pad, the orbiter's midbody umbilical unit was demated and the sound suppression system water tank was filled. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 2/06/2001)

On Sunday, February 5, 2001 the flight crew arrived at KSC at 1:43 p.m EST and the countdown clock began at 10 p.m EST (03:00 GMT) at the T-minus 43 hour mark. Sunday morning, workers replaced one of the three space suits aboard Atlantis.

On Friday, 1/26/2001, Space Shuttle Atlantis rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at 6:48 a.m. and arrived at Launch Pad 39A at 12:44 p.m. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 1/26/2001)

On Thursday, 1/25/2001, Shuttle managers today announced Feb. 7 as the target launch date for Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-98. The previous launch date was 2/6/2001 at 6:37 p.m. The new date accommodates scheduled launch activities on the Eastern Range and better supports a desire to rendezvous with the orbiting International Space Station on flight day 3. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 1/25/2001)

On Monday, 1/22/2001, Over the weekend, technicians successfully completed continuity "wiggle" tests on the systems tunnel cables located in both STS-98 solid rocket boosters. Workers began collecting X-ray images of the cables Sunday and concluded that effort at 2:30 a.m. today. Analysis of the X-ray images confirmed that the cables have no physical damage. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 1/22/2001)
On Monday, 1/15/2001, 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.

(Reference KSC Shuttle Status 1/15/2001)

On Tuesday, 1/2/2001, the Space Shuttle Atlantis began its move to Launch Pad 39A at about 8:30 a.m., but an hour later stopped on the crawler path so engineers could troubleshoot a failed computer processor on th crawler transporter. Troubleshooting efforts were unsuccessful, so managers decided to roll Atlantis back into VAB high bay 3 using a secondary computer processor. Managers plan to use KSC ' crawler transporter No. 2 tomorrow instead of the trouble crawler transporter No. 1. First motion to the launch pad is now expected between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Wednesday. Managers are assessing the impact of this unexpected delay on the remainder of the processing schedule. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 1/02/2001)

Prior to the holidays, Shuttle managers completed an extensive evaluation of the STS-98 solid rocket booster ordnance cables and determined that they are ready for flight. After thorough inspection, X-ray analysis and functional testing, engineers identified minor damage to an outer layer of woven metal shielding on a cable associated with the left-hand booster's lower attachment strut. The damaged area was repaired and retested. Subsequent analysis confirmed the cable's flight readiness. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 1/02/2001)

STS-98 Movies and Images

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Developed under the direction of the NASA KSC Public Affairs Office
Author: Jim Dumoulin (dumoulin@titan.ksc.nasa.gov) / NASA - Payload Operations
Last Updated: Wednesday February 28 11:11:58 EDT 2001(J.Dumoulin)

A service of NASA/Kennedy Space Center Public Affairs Office, Joe Gordon Jr.,Director (Joseph.Gordon-1@ksc.nasa.gov)