Nasa is hoping for favourable weather conditions
Posted on 11/10/2002 6:02:53 PM PST by WSGilcrest
 We're right on schedule and we have no issues  |
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Pete Nickolenko
Nasa test director |
Two of the crew members are last minute replacements for two astronauts who had to be bumped from the mission - the first time Nasa has had to switch crews since the fateful Apollo 13 voyage.
Early on Sunday three cosmonauts landed on the Kazakh steppes in their Soyuz capsule after a 10-day stay on the ISS.
'Right on schedule'
The shuttle is scheduled to take off at 0040 (0540 GMT) on Monday, with an optimal launch window of just five minutes, Nasa spokeswoman Kyle Herring said.
Pilot Paul Lockhart is a last minute replacement
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According to Nasa weather forecaster there is an 80% chance that the weather conditions will be favourable for the launch.
"We're right on schedule and we have no issues," said Nasa test director Pete Nickolenko.
Top of the mission agenda is the assembly of a huge beam on the ISS using the station's robotic arm, which will form part of the cooling system.
The beam will increase the length of the main section of the ISS by 14 metres.
Crew replacements
Two of the original mission crew, Donald Thomas and Endeavour pilot Christopher "Gus" Loria, were replaced in the summer after both suffered medical problems.
Taking their seats are shuttle pilot Paul Lockhart and Donald Pettit, who will spend the winter aboard the ISS.
Nasa's experts had debated for months whether to ground Thomas for an undisclosed medical condition.
"It was one of those things that was right on the line," said expedition commander Kenneth Bowersox.
"I had trouble sleeping before it happened because I was so worried about which way we should go and what was right and what was wrong and the best way to handle it," he added.
Just a couple of weeks later the pilot Loria injured his back at home, forcing him out of the mission too.
The change sent shock waves through the crew - not since the ill-fated voyage of Apollo 13 has a career astronaut been removed from a mission.
There were also technical problems as Nasa had already delivered the food and clothes Thomas would use during his stay on the ISS, leaving Petit with wrong provisions and clothes that are too small.
To cope he has stashed some of his favourite food and some bigger shoes and trousers on the shuttle.
Superstition
The other problem is one of superstition as the flight number for the mission is STS 113 - uncomfortably close to the unlucky 13.
 The Kazakh landing was reportedly difficult
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We were joking a lot about being Number 113," said Bowersox, who said they had pondered changing the mission's number.
Playing it safe the astronaut's mission patch reads in Roman numerals - CXIII.
On Sunday morning at 0604 (0004 GMT), two Russian cosmonauts and Belgium's first ever astronaut landed in Kazakhstan after a 10-day stint on the ISS.
The landing was reported to have been a little difficult. "The landing was a little hard, maybe because it was dark," said flight commander Sergei Zalyotin.
But all of the crew were reported to be fine.
Land = hard
Water = soft
C'mon. This isn't difficult.
LOL!
Everyone knows that the underside of Russian 'space ships' have Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager airbags 'liberated' from minivans parked in American airport parking lots glued to the heat shield.
The airbags are triggered at the "We're about to be hitting the ground now!" point by the Commander, who is able to view the landing zone through a window in the cabin floor that once graced the door of a discarded front-loading washing machine found behind a Houston Laundromat.
A dark night can queer the whole process.
Dunno. They've done it that way since Yuri Gagarin. Maybe Russians can't swim or can't afford the fuel for the carrier and recovery helos ;)
They just mentioned a postponement - what's going on? There's only about a 5-minute launch window tonight.
I wonder if they'll take this opportunity to change out the crew clothing already stored in the Shuttle? This was the mission that two of the prime crew were replaced, and I remember some discussion about one or both of the backup crew having to wear the prime crew's clothing that had already been stowed aboard.
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