Tue 19 Feb 2008
This week could be one for the Space history books…
Atlantis (STS-122) is scheduled to land on Wednesday. There are four possible landing opportunities, two at Kennedy (preferred) and two at Edwards AFB. As you may know NASA likes to avoid landing the Shuttle at Edwards because then they have to load up the orbiter onto the specially-equipped Boeing 747 and haul it back to Kennedy, which looks cool, but delays the next scheduled mission for that Shuttle. Now, typically if the weather at both these locations is unfavorable due to storms or high-winds then NASA will delay the landing and try again the next day. They have enough oxygen and fuel to make it to early Friday if necessary. But, here’s the catch…
Last week President Bush authorized the DoD to attempt to destroy a doomed super-secret spy satellite, designated USA 193, that is expected to tumble uncontrolled from orbit within the next few weeks. The U.S. Navy will try to destroy the satellite prior to its reentry by slamming a ship-fired SM-3 into it.
from Sky and Telescope:
“Apparently, DoD computer models have shown that, if left alone, more than half of USA 193’s roughly 5,000-pound mass would survive the atmospheric plunge and reach the ground. In particular, there’s a 20-inch diameter tank containing about a half ton of the highly toxic propellant hydrazine. So the decision was made to break up the satellite if possible.”
The DoD has determined that Thursday is the first possible day to start letting the Navy begin ‘target-practice’ and let SM-3 ‘meet’ USA 193. And this brings up the interesting question of, do you really want to be launching a kinetic warhead into space to break-up a spy satellite into thousands of little bits the same day 7 relatively un-armed Astronauts are attempting to guide a rather fragile glider back to Earth. Now, admittedly the Earth’s atmosphere and Space are pretty big, but if something were to happen it would look rather… what’s the word… stupid.
NASA is remaining surprisingly mum about the conflict, but I bet NASA really, really, really wants to get out-of-the-way and land Atlantis on Wednesday. And that brings up the interesting possibility of the fifth landing opportunity on Wednesday. That’s right, the fifth. If the weather at both Kennedy and Edwards is unfavorable, then Atlantis can also land at White Sands, NM. The last and only time the Shuttle has landed at White Sands was in 1982 when Columbia (STS-3) landed there during an R&D flight. But as it stands White Sands is now prepping for a possible landing.
Admittedly, this landing of Atlantis is not going to be as exciting as Jerry Bruckheimer could make it, and it will not end in Bruce Willis sacrificing himself to blow up an asteroid, but bringing in a Space Shuttle for a combat landing just before you start shooting at an out-of-control toxic spy satellite is about as exciting as it gets. 