Category: <span>2008 archive</span>

Christina Drain The Corsair Amid sun and billowing clouds, space shuttle Atlantis lifted off at 2:45 p.m. today. The weather was a concern all day but a jubilant Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer, made the announcement during the final planned hold at 9 minutes that weather was acceptable for launch. A final check of the...

Christina Drain The Corsair With the external tank one-third full of propellant, NASA crews are closely watching the engine cut-off sensors for any sign of failure. Monitoring includes the sensors, the recently soldered pass-through connectors, even up through the flight deck, according to mission control. The malfunctioning sensors were the cause for the December scrub...

Christina Drain The Corsair The slow fill of the three fuel cells on Atlantis is going well. A mixture of liquid hydrogen and oxygen is being pumped into the cells. The crucial ECO sensor testing has not begun.