KENNEDY SPACE CENTER <br />SHUTTLE & PAYLOAD PROCESSING STATUS REPORT <br />Monday, Jan. 13, 2003 (11 a.m.)<br /><br /><br />For the latest Shuttle status on the web visit<br /><http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/stsstat/current.htm>. <br />For the latest weather forecast visit<br /><http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/weatstat/forecast.htm>. <br />Visit <http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/schedule/schedule.htm> for the<br />latest schedule of future Shuttle missions. KSC press releases can be found<br />at <http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/release/release.htm>. <br />The KSC home page can be found at <http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/>. <br /><br /><br />MISSION STS-107 -SPACEHAB/ FREESTAR MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH MISSION<br /><br /><br />VEHICLE - Columbia/OV-102<br />TARGET LAUNCH DATE: Jan. 16, 2003<br />TARGET LAUNCH PERIOD: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.<br />TARGET LANDING DATE: Feb. 1, 2003<br />MISSION DURATION: 16 days<br />CREW: Husband, McCool, Anderson, Chawla, Brown, Clark, Ramon<br />ORBITAL INSERTION ALTITUDE AND INCLINATION: 150 nautical miles/39 degrees<br /><br /><br />Shuttle Processing Note: The launch countdown began late last night for<br />Shuttle Columbia's Spacehab microgravity research mission scheduled to<br />launch this Thursday, Jan. 16. Work continues at Pad 39-A with preparations<br />in work for loading the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Power<br />Reactant Storage and Distribution System. Due to the quantity and nature of<br />research to be performed on this mission, technicians have begun<br />preparations to load late stow payloads. Tomorrow will begin the 16-hour<br />task of loading the late stow payloads and experiments into the Spacehab<br />module. <br /><br /><br />Mission managers met last night to discuss the status of the ongoing<br />engineering analysis of a surface crack that was found on a 2.25-inch<br />diameter metal ball associated with the Ball Strut Tie Rod Assembly (BSTRA)<br />inside Discovery's 17-inch liquid oxygen line. No inspections were performed<br />on Columbia. The results of the testing have given the Space Shuttle program<br />enough confidence to begin the countdown, with the final launch rationale to<br />be presented at the standard meeting held two days prior to launch. <br /><br /><br />The STS-107 crew members arrived last night at the Shuttle Landing Facility<br />at Kennedy Space Center in preparations for their launch on Thursday. <br /><br /><br />Weather forecasters predict a favorable outlook for a launch attempt on<br />Thursday, with only a 5 percent chance of weather prohibiting launch. <br /><br /><br />-- end --