Space Shuttle Program (SSP) managers have completed their Delta Flight Readiness Review (FRR) with a decision to press on to the primary Agency FRR next Friday. The expected decision came after managers reviewed the current flight rationale for External Tank (ET-137) following its modifications, although Discovery’s pad rats are having to work through numerous issues out at Pad 39A.
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Departmental reviews mainly noted “no constraints pending the closure of open work,” as is usual for this stage of the preparations for flight, added to other notes from SSP management which conveyed “there is some good agreement.. should be able to clear it out and get February 24 as the STS-133 launch date.”
That launch date won’t be officially set until the Agency Delta FRR next week, pending the successful launch of the Ariane 5 ECA carrying ATV-2 on the opening launch attempt.
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Other issues in Discovery’s eventful pad flow of late are being closed, as the NTD updated the status of several items of interest, ranging from the Feeler Gauge – which fell apart as an engineer was working on the GUCP work, sending numerous blades down the stack, one of which caught the External Tank – to the loud noise heard by engineers during the hyperloading tasks on Discovery’s SRBs.
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