TIM FURNISS / LONDON
Endeavour readies for crew exchange mission as NASA says orbital manoeuvring system connections not compromised
The launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on its International Space Station (ISS) logistics and crew exchange mission, STS 108, remains on course for 29 November after NASA decided the orbital manoeuvring system (OMS) connections on the orbiter Endeavour have not been compromised.
The agency had discovered potentially weakened connections due to elongated bolt holes on the OMS pods of sister orbiter Columbia.
The Shuttle's clearance comes as ISS development continues with the completion of the first of three spacewalks from the new Russian Pirs docking module attached to the station. The 5h spacewalk, completed by Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikail Tyurin on 8 October was the first extra vehicular activity (EVA) from the ISS without the Space Shuttle docked to the orbital outpost.
Wearing Russian Orlan EVA suits, the cosmonauts attached communications cables, handrails, a ladder and the Russian Strela boom (a manoeuvrable crane to help spacewalkers move around the Russian part of the ISS ) to the Pirs, along with a docking target and two radar antennas for arriving Soyuz and Progress vehicles.
A second spacewalk on 15 October is due to replace a Japanese materials science package on the exterior of the Russian Zvezdaservice module to which Pirs is attached, while a third EVA on5 November will complete outfitting of the Pirs exterior. On 23 October, a new Soyuz TM vehicle will arrive at the ISS with a three-person crew on a one week mission.
The Spacehab-Energia Enterprise commercial module will be ferried to the ISS aboard the Space Shuttle rather than on a Russian Proton booster as originally planned.
The Shuttle launch was made possible by a reduction in size of the Russian Science Power Platform (SPP), which was already assigned a Shuttle launch. The Shuttle can now accommodate both modules on a launch planned for April 2004, delayed from Octobernext year due to the changes to the SPP.
The Enterprise, originally envisaged as a multimedia broadcast studio with a commercial microgravity laboratory, will have to perform some of the functions to have been provided by the cancelled Russian Docking and Stowage Module.
Spacehab is trying to persuade NASA to regard Enterprise as the replacement of the abandoned US Habitation Module, which would have supported the full six-person ISS crew.
Russian space officials have rejected South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth as the potential second space tourist on a Soyuz mission to the ISS after he demanded a two week mission, and a free second flight if the Soyuz spacecraft failed to dock.Source: Flight International
