During the meeting, solid rocket motor managers discussed further their findings into the anomaly seen in o-rings of the nozzle to case joint for the boosters used in the STS-75 launch. An additional review is planned for Friday, March 15, 1996.
"We take flight issues like this very seriously and as is always the case, this problem is being aggressively investigated by both the Shuttle and safety communities" said George Abbey, Director, Johnson Space Center, who chaired the review meeting. "The teams working this issue have examined many areas including the way the boosters are processed, the thermal constraints on the system, possible failure scenarios and performance data from previous flights."
The March 21 launch of Atlantis is planned for 3:35 a.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) Launch Complex 39-B. The available launch period, or "window," to launch Atlantis is approximately seven to ten minutes each day.
The STS-76 mission is scheduled to last approximately nine days. Docking with Mir will occur on flight day three. An on- time launch and nominal mission duration would have Atlantis and crew returning to Earth on March 30 with a landing at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility at approximately 8:04 a.m. EST.
The STS-76 mission will be the 16th mission for Atlantis and the 76th for the Space Shuttle system.