Shuttle Processing
External Tank 138 (ET-138) was produced at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans and arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on the Pegasus barge. After offloading, the tank was transported into a checkout cell inside the VAB on 14 July 2010.
NASA initially planned for STS-134 (Endeavour) to fly with the newer ET-138 and for the LON STS-335 (Atlantis) mission to utilize the refurbished ET-122 only in the event that a rescue of Endeavour's crew were required. During Hurricane Katrina, ET-122 was damaged at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans and while the tank was certified as completely flight-worthy after its repairs were completed, NASA management ruled that ET-122 posed a slightly higher risk of losing foam from the repaired areas and therefore assigned it to the STS-335 mission that would likely never fly. However, once it was decided to fly Atlantis on a full STS-135 mission, the tank assignments were swapped so that in the event STS-134 (Endeavour) were to suffer damage from ET-122, Atlantis with the newer and less risky ET-138 would be poised to rescue Endeavour's crew.
In early December 2010, ground technicians installed the main engines on Atlantis. The Shuttle received the center engine on 7 December 2010, followed by the lower-right engine and the lower-left on 8 and 9 December 2010 respectively inside Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-1). The event marked the last set of main engines ever to be installed on a space shuttle.
Stacking operations of the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) for the mission commenced in the evening hours of 29 March 2011. Technicians inside the VAB, lifted the left-aft segment from the handling crate and carefully maneuvered into High Bay No. 1 and finally onto the mobile launch platform. The booster stacking was completed in mid April. The completed boosters had a mixture of refurbished and unflown elements (11 sections on each booster). For example, the forward dome for the right-hand booster is new, while the upper cylinder on the left booster flew with STS-1 – the historic maiden flight of Space Shuttle Columbia. (For detailed information on the STS-135 boosters, see)
After completing the assembly process, the ET-138 was mated to the SRBs on 25 April.
Read more about this topic: STS-135
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