DATE=9/8/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SHUTTLE LAUNCH (L)
NUMBER=2-266269
BYLINE=DAVID MCALARY
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
INTERNET=YES
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-S space shuttle Atlantis has roared into
the heavens from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying five
U-S astronauts and two Russian cosmonauts to a
rendezvous with the new International Space Station.
As V-O-A Science Correspondent David McAlary tells us,
the mission aims to prepare the station for its first
full time crew later this year.
TEXT: This 11-day mission brings the space station
program - a 16-country effort - into its next phase.
For the first time, Atlantis will dock with an
international station that is inhabitable and self-
sufficient.
When the link-up takes place Sunday [2:12 a.m. EDT],
the seven crewmen will become the first to float into
the station's new Russian-made control module, Zvezda.
They will begin five days of work to get it ready for
the permanent crews, the first of which is to arrive
in November.
Shuttle managers have scheduled more tasks for the
Atlantis crew than they can possibly get done in five
days aboard the station, but they have a list of
minimum jobs that must be done. Shuttle official Bill
Gerstenmeier [GER-sten-my-er] says the U-S space
agency may add an extra day to the mission to fit more
tasks in if supplies hold out.
/// GERSTENMEIER ACT ///
The mission is full of activities. There is a lot of
activity in preparing the space station for permanent
manning. We'll see if we can get 12 days out of this.
We'll probably know in about three or four days
whether we can actually achieve that or not when we
actually see heater cycles and power usage and see how
that goes. We're going to try to give the crew as
much time to get accomplished what they need to get
accomplished on the station.
/// END ACT ///
The Atlantis crew will make electrical and data
connections in Zvezda and unload one-and-a-half tons
of equipment flown up on a Russian supply rocket last
month. They will also install a toilet and exercise
equipment in Zvezda and conduct a spacewalk to link it
electronically with the Russian Zarya module.
/// REST OPT ///
Not only is the workload during this mission busy, but
so is the planned schedule of U-S shuttle launches to
the space station. There are eight on the calendar
over the next 12 months including this one.
The station assembly schedule had been even busier,
with nine shuttle flights and six Russian missions
planned for the coming year - a total of 15. But NASA
and its Russian, European, Canadien and Japanese
partners decided last month to stretch the schedule
out, meaning the station is now to be completed in
2006, not 2005.
The new schedule reflects fading confidence in the
ability to complete station construction on a schedule
that would have required a launch every month. NASA
Flight Director Phil Engelauf had worried just last
month that such an intense schedule posed special
problems.
/// ENGELAUF ACT ///
There are added complexities in the sense that we have
two programs between the shuttle and the station now,
international partners, and there are more variables.
Things are harder to control. I think it would
probably be naive for everybody to think that we could
get through 15 flights in a row without some
unforeseen problem cropping up.
/// END ACT ///
The next U-S shuttle flight is set for October fifth
to bring up more hardware to continue station
assembly. (SIGNED)
NEB/DEM/PLM
08-Sep-2000 11:59 AM EDT (08-Sep-2000 1559 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
