> Backup Shuttle Moved Onto Launch Pad In Case Rescue Mission Needed

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Backup Shuttle Moved Onto Launch Pad
Saturday, September 20, 2008

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? In an unprecedented step, a space shuttle was
moved to the launch pad Friday for a trip NASA hopes it will never
make ? a rescue mission. The shuttle Endeavour is on standby in case
the seven astronauts who go up on Atlantis next month need a safer
ride home.

Atlantis and its crew are headed into space for one last repair job on
the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. It's a venture that was
canceled when first proposed a few years ago because it was considered
too dangerous.

The risk is this: If Atlantis suffers serious damage during launch or
in flight, the astronauts will not be at the international space
station, where they could take refuge for weeks while awaiting a ride
home. They would be stranded on their spacecraft at the Hubble, where
NASA estimates they could stay alive for 25 days. Air would be the
first to go.

Endeavour and four more astronauts would need to blast off on a rescue
flight as soon as NASA determined Atlantis was too damaged to fly
home.

On Friday, Endeavour was parked at its launch pad just a mile from
where Atlantis is tentatively set to lift off on Oct. 10.

It is the first time since 2001 ? when flights were more closely
spaced ? that both of NASA's shuttle pads have been occupied. And it
will probably be the last.

The Atlantis astronauts say there's a slim chance any rescue will be
needed, and they say they would fly to Hubble even if there were no
such backup plan.

Scott Altman, Atlantis' commander, said it may seem like overkill, but
having a rescue ship on the pad is the right thing to do.

"It's kind of a belt-and-suspenders approach. But if you need the belt
after your suspenders fail, you would be glad you had it," said
Altman, a retired Navy captain and former fighter pilot.

On top of the usual launch and landing dangers, the Atlantis crew
faces an estimated 1-in-185 chance that a piece of space junk or a
micrometeoroid will cause catastrophic damage to their ship. Those are
greater odds than for a typical shuttle flight because of Hubble's
extremely high and debris-littered orbit.

Before reaching Hubble and again after leaving it, the Atlantis
astronauts will inspect their spacecraft for signs of damage, just as
crews always do while in orbit.

Ever since space shuttles resumed flying following the 2003 Columbia
tragedy that killed seven astronauts, NASA has had a rescue plan in
case of irreparable damage. But all those missions have been to the
space station, where astronauts could camp out for two months.

The Hubble mission offers no such safe haven. That's why the Hubble
repair mission was canceled in 2004; NASA's boss at the time deemed it
too dangerous.

A new NASA regime reversed that decision, once space shuttles were
flying safely again and repair methods became available to orbiting
astronauts. The caveat was that another shuttle be on the launch pad,
all prepped and ready to fly ? something never before attempted.

NASA took similar steps in 1973 during its first space station
program, Skylab. But a rescue was never needed.

Once Atlantis is aloft, "if it even begins to smell" like a rescue
might be needed, final preparations for Endeavour will begin, said
launch director Mike Leinbach. He said Endeavour could lift off within
six days.

The rescue craft would fly to Atlantis and use a 50-foot robot arm to
grab the damaged shuttle. The Atlantis astronauts would put on
spacesuits and float, a few at a time, to Endeavour over the course of
three spacewalks. Endeavour would return home with all 11 astronauts.

The toughest call, officials say, would be deciding that Atlantis
indeed had serious enough damage that a rescue should be tried.

"This will be an emotional thing," Leinbach said.

Such a rescue would put four more astronauts at risk and would mean
the end of Atlantis, and undoubtedly the space shuttle program, which
is set to be phased out in 2010. Atlantis would be sent into the
Pacific once its astronauts were aboard Endeavour.

It would rank right up there with the drama of Apollo 13, said Ed
Mango, Atlantis' launch director. For Leinbach, who would head up the
rescue launch, it would be the most important thing NASA has ever
done, period.

Altman realizes that if pressed into service, Endeavour might not get
off in time. Storms or a last-second engine shutdown could keep it
grounded.

"There's no guarantee it would get there," Altman said in an interview
with The Associated Press. "On the other hand, you look at how many
things would have to go wrong to make it not possible to pull off. ...

"There's a scenario out there that doesn't have a happy ending, and I
think we all have to come to grips with that before launch."

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