I have the plan of action on this radiator hose issue. During launch preparations at Kennedy, technicians noticed a small section of a braided metal hose that was bent in a shape similar to the Greek letter Omega. The radiator retract hose, part of the shuttle's cooling system that carries Freon, is designed to flex. However, engineers wanted to make sure they were not overlooking potential problems and designed a tool to guide the hose back into the storage box. Testing in Huntington Beach, Calif., has proven successful and program managers gave the go ahead to close payload bay doors using the tool on Sunday evening. Atlantis’ seven astronauts will arrive at Kennedy Monday at 10:30 a.m., and the countdown clock will begin ticking down Monday at 5 p.m.
Launch date: February 7, 2008
Launch time: 2:45 P.M.