KSC-04pd-2704

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Members of the STS-114 crew learn about a 30-foot-diameter C-band antenna (above them) and smaller X-band antenna being installed at KSC, north of the Haulover Canal. From left are Mission Specialists Stephen Robinson, Wendy Lawrence (partially hidden) and Soichi Noguchi; Pilot James Kelly; Commander Eileen Collins; and Mission Specialist Charles Camarda (partially hidden). At far right is Denny Kross, deputy Space Shuttle Program manager. Next to him is Tony Griffith, JSC project manager for the Ascent Debris Radar Working Group. The antennas are being tested during the launch of a Delta II rocket carrying NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft bound for the planet Mercury that will work together to create an image of the Delta rocket in flight. The test will evaluate the use of the radars as part of NASA’s Return to Flight program for the Space Shuttle to observe possible debris coming from the Shuttle during launch. If successful, the radar configuration could be used on ships downrange, including on one of the solid rocket booster retrieval ships. And it may enable the return to launching Space Shuttles at night. The launch window for Return to Flight mission STS-114 is May 12 through June 3, 2005.