Keefer Madness

Space Shuttle Endeavour Moves To Launch Pad 39B

// September 19th, 2008 // Space Stuff & NASA

I haven’t written a post about NASA’s endeavors (no pun intended) in awhile, but their press release this morning about the Endeavour being moved to 39B caught my attention for a couple of reasons.

Initially, it caught my eye because it’s the first time since July 2001 that two of the fleet’s shuttles have been on the launch pad simultaneously. That should make for some great photo opportunities early this coming week. With the space shuttle hitting retirement in 2010, this should be the last time you will see too shuttles out on the pads at the same time.

Then, there are two other strange/unique things. Endeavour is on 39B as the backup to Atlantis should it need a rescue during Atlantis’ mission to do repairs on the Hubble telescope. Doesn’t that scare anyone else? It sounds like something out of a summer blockbuster movie. I’m not sure what makes Atlantis’ mission to the Hubble so risky, but with NASA having a contingency plan setup, I’m more than a bit scared and curious about these coming missions.

The other question I came away from NASA’s press release this morning is the fact that if Atlantis is successful in its mission, and doesn’t need assistance from Endeavour, NASA is then going to move Endeavour to launch pad 39A. Why is that necessary? Obviously, if Endeavour has to launch to assist Atlantis, it’s going to be from 39B. So why would they shift the space shuttle to 39A for its own mission? I’m sure there’s a logical answer to burn the fuel and take the time to make the move. Maybe the press release omitted some details. If Endeavour isn’t going up for a rescue, it may be rolled back away from the launch pads to switch payloads for its STS-126 mission to the space station.

I think I found my answer here on Wikipedia:

Despite the turnover of the pad from Shuttle operations to Constellation operations, the pad is still being kept in “reserve” status for the upcoming STS-125 flight to repair the ailing Hubble Space Telescope. This is due in part that NASA cannot launch both STS-125 and the STS-400 rescue flight from LC39A at the same time, and that the assigned orbiter, Atlantis, would not be in the same orbital inclination as that of the International Space Station (thus the “safe harbor” principle would not apply).

I partially follow that explanation, but not fully. Anyone out there reading this have a fuller, and maybe simpler explanation of these next couple shuttle launches/contingencies?

Space Shuttle Endeavour Moves To Launch Pad 39B