You're watching NASA Direct.
Next on the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report: All three of NASA's orbiters are preparing for missions to the International Space Station.
Discovery gets new wheels, Atlantis is undergoing an underside inspection,
and -- Endeavour is taking shape! The NASA Space Shuttle Status Report starts right now.
Music.
I'm Bob Walker, NASA test director, and this is the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report.
Topping NASA's orbiter news this week: Inside Orbiter Processing Facility Bay three at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
orbiter Discovery is getting ready for its second return to flight test mission, named STS-121.
Post-flight inspections of the thermal protective tiles that cover the underside of the orbiter are
now in progress, as well as power-up testing on the vehicle systems. Technicians also installed new tires on Discovery's landing gear.
Work on orbiter Atlantis is moving right along.
Gap filler work and other processing continues inside Orbiter Processing Facility Bay one at Kennedy.
The vehicle is preparing to fly mission STS-115 to the International Space Station.
Right now, workers are intensely checking, inspecting and installing gap fillers between the orbiter's thermal protective tiles.
Gap fillers are placed between the thousands of tiles to provide additional thermal protection during reentry.
Extra focus will be placed on this area after two pieces of gap filler wiggled loose during STS-114,
Discovery's return to flight mission in July. In an unprecedented spacewalk,
astronaut Steve Robinson plucked the dislodged filler from between the tiles to ensure a safe return for Discovery and its crew.
As part of mission STS 115, Atlantis will transport important truss segments to the International Space Station.
The P3/P4 truss segments are currently being prepped at Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility.
Solar arrays are attached to the P3/P4 trusses and will provide 25 percent of the power generation capability of the space station.
And orbiter Endeavour continues processing in Orbiter Processing Facility bay two after a nearly two-year major modification period.
Endeavour's body flap hardware has been reattached following extensive modification work.
While the body flap was removed, technicians sanded and painted the hardware with corrosion control paint.
That’s all the time we have for this week’s Space Shuttle Status Report. Stay with NASA TV and nasa.gov for the latest in mission news.
For the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report, I'm Bob Walker.