The next Atlantis launch opportunity comes in November. Should Atlantis be ready to fly by then, NASA would remain on track for resuming construction of the ISS come March.
There is virtually no chance of a shuttle launch in September because of difficulty resolving fuel tank problems that triggered the 2003 loss of Columbia and reappeared during the recent Discovery mission, according to a top NASA manager.
NASA had hoped to launch its next shuttle, Atlantis, on a follow-up test flight and servicing mission to the International Space Station in September. But, engineers have resumed work on the shuttle's fuel tank after watching video and pictures of several large pieces of foam flying off the tank as Discovery soared into orbit on July 26. Unlike the ill-fated Columbia, the foam did not hit Discovery. NASA rightly grounded the fleet until the tanks are repaired.
NASA had spent 2 1/2 years and more than $1 billion fixing the tank and implementing other safety upgrades after the Columbia accident to stop exactly this problem.
"Our plan is going to be to understand what caused this foam shedding and then to remove that cause so that we don't have a large piece of foam coming off the tank" -Bill Gerstenmaier, space station program manager.
Of course, it may be that, that too will be a `half baked` attempt at sorting what in essence a basic design fault of the shuttle design. The long glide path which was stipulated by the military as being necessary, needs a large wingspan, and that in turn creates a very long period of re-entry heating; all of which relies on fragile ceramic tiles...
