• VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103
• LOCATION: Pad 39B
• TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: December 11 at 12:13 a.m. EST
• TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: December 20 at about 9:21 p.m. EST
• LAUNCH WINDOW: 38 minutes
• MISSION DURATION: about 9 days and 21 hours
• CREW: Brown, Kelly, Smith, Foale, Grunsfeld, Nicollier, Clervoy
• ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 317 nautical miles/28.45 degrees

Work in progress: Work in progress: Shuttle managers determined today that an additional inspection of umbilical wiring is required on Shuttle Discovery. The electrical wire being inspected supports the pyrotechnic initiator controller for Discovery's left-hand solid rocket booster and is part of the Shuttle's liquid oxygen umbilical assembly.

Recently, workers were tasked to inspect and repair minor insulation flaws on the wires located in the orbiter umbilical harnesses. The unplanned work concluded on Wednesday, Dec. 1. This latest inspection will determine if additional work is required to ensure the flight readiness of the single pyrotechnic wire.

• VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105
• LOCATION: VAB
• TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: Jan. 13, 2000 at 1:11 p.m. EST
• TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: Jan. 24, 2000 at 5:16 p.m. EST
• LAUNCH WINDOW: 54 minutes
• MISSION DURATION: 11 days and 4 hours, 5 minutes
• CREW: Kregel, Gorie, Kavandi, Voss, Mohri, Thiele
• ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 126 nautical miles/57 degrees

Work in progress: Yesterday afternoon, orbiter Endeavour arrived in the Vehicle Assembly Building and preparations began to mate the orbiter to the external tank and solid rocket boosters in high bay 1. Today orbiter/external tank mating activities began and the Shuttle Interface Test begins early Monday morning.

Shuttle managers today decided to replace Endeavour's main engine No. 3 while the Shuttle is in the VAB. This additional work will delay the Shuttle's roll out to Launch Pad 39A until Dec. 13. Analysis of a separate test engine revealed delamination on the wall of the engine's main combustion chamber following routine testing procedures. Further data gathering revealed that one of Endeavour's engines had undergone similar testing procedures and as a precaution managers opted to replace the suspect engine.

For automatic e-mail subscriptions to these Shuttle status reports or KSC-originated press releases, send an Internet electronic mail message to domo@news.ksc.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the subject line) type the words "subscribe shuttle-status", or "subscribe ksc-press-release" (do not use quotation marks). The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription.