STS-129 - Shuttle Processing

Shuttle Processing

Atlantis was towed from its hangar in Orbiter Processing Facility-1 to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on October 6, 2009 at about 07:00 EDT. The move, known as rollover, was completed at 08:25 when Atlantis arrived in the VAB transfer aisle. Atlantis was initially scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A on October 13, 2009. However, an issue with a crane that was being used to transfer Atlantis for attachment to its external fuel tank and two solid rocket boosters caused a delay in operations forcing the shuttle managers to add extra 24-hours to the rollout preparations.

Atlantis rolled out from the VAB to the Launch Complex 39A on October 14, 2009, at 06:38 EDT in a slow drive on the top of the Crawler-transporter. The 3.4 miles (5.5 km) rollout was completed with the launch platform secured in place at about 13:31 EDT.

The final flight readiness review (FRR) meeting for the STS-129 mission took place at Kennedy Space Center during the last week of October 2009. The FRR had approved the installation of a special minicam pointing out of window 4 on Atlantis' flight deck. The camera will film the forward portion of the External Tank during the shuttle's ascent to orbit, in order to capture the behavior of the LO2 Ice Frost Ramps (IFRs) located on the upper part of the tank during potential liberation events.

NASA managers held a post news conference to brief about the outcomes of the FRR on October 30, 2009. The briefing was broadcast on NASA TV and was attended by William Gerstenmaier, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Operations, Michael Moses, Launch Integration Manager, Space Shuttle Program and Michael Leinbach, space shuttle launch director. Mr. Gerstenmaier and Mr. Moses mentioned about two issues related to ongoing shuttle processing that had been discussed during the FRR: (1) Effects of vibrations and acoustics associated with the Main Engine ignition—a potential issue with a stinger (bolt) structure on the aft of the shuttle, which may be susceptible to the stresses of Main Engine ignition (2) Shuttle's toilet – a new Aluminum bracket used to help anchor the toilet to the crew module structure had been installed. For future flights, NASA plans to use a redesigned Titanium bracket.

The payload for the mission was moved to Launch Pad 39A on the October 29, 2009 and was installed into the shuttle's payload bay on November 4, 2009.

During the post-flight interview on November 16, shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach told that Atlantis officially beat shuttle Discovery on the record low amount of Interim Problem Reports, with a total of just 54 listed since returning from the STS-125. He continued to add "It's due to the team and the hardware processing. They just did a great job. The record will probably never be broken again in the history of the Space Shuttle Program, so congratulations to them".