WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The morning daylight casts its rays over the ground and onto Space Shuttle Atlantis atop the Mobile Launcher Platform and crawler-transporter. Vehicles below follow the transporter as it crawls from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A. The Shuttle has been in the VAB undergoing tests on the solid rocket booster cables. A prior extensive evaluation of NASA’s SRB cable inventory on the shelf revealed conductor damage in four (of about 200) cables. Shuttle managers decided to prove the integrity of the system tunnel cables already on Atlantis, causing return of the Shuttle to the VAB a week ago. Launch of Atlantis on STS-98 has been rescheduled to Feb. 7 at 6:11 p.m. EST.