Well well You all crazy STS lovers here we come and this time looks like our friends from ATLANTIS will be doing 6 EVAs.
If the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) were to proceed with a six planned EVA mission, the request would have to come from the HST program and a review of the Mission Safety Critical Requirements would have to be conducted by the SSP.

'SCSC developed to 'ensure safety and well being of crewmembers who perform a wide variety of tasks associated with the vast challenges of a Shuttle mission ensuring a safe mission first and successful mission second,'' added the MOD presentation.

'Understand HST Program's desire to optimize HST capability with SM4 being the last servicing mission but do not want to compromise safety or incur any additional risks.'

Nevertheless, exchanging the unscheduled EVA with a scheduled EVA limits the possibility of a contingency EVA should some component of the HST fail during the first deployment opportunity.

To accomplish a potential sixth planned EVA while still protecting for an unscheduled EVA for HST deployment, the MOD is investigating three additional options aside from simply replacing the unscheduled EVA with a scheduled EVA.

These remaining three options include rendezvousing with HST on FD-2 instead of FD-3 (thereby deferring all TPS inspections to FD-9 and FD-10), eliminating one of the two End of Mission (EOM) contingency days, and eliminating/modifying the Late Inspection requirement.

The first option would see Atlantis rendezvousing with the HST on FD-2 instead of FD-3.

'For specific Launch Phase angles the capability exists to support a FD-2 rendezvous. Thought is that rendezvous on FD-2 will buy back additional time for EVA activities,' notes the mission planning document.

There are, however, many impediments to this option, the first of which being the elimination of TPS inspections until after HST deployment at the end of the mission.

'FD-2 TPS inspections provide expedited assessment of TPS after ascent. Expedited assessment provides early response and kickoff of any activities required to verify/provide integrity to TPS for Entry support,' the MOD presentation adds.

'Provides maximum 'on-orbit' time to evaluate and plan repair activities as required (such as) Focused Inspections/EVA repair. Delay in acquiring this data delays working/executing 'corrective' actions.'

Other concerns for a FD-2 rendezvous include the time necessary to configure the orbiter for HST capture and berthing. These concerns include Remote Manipulator System checkout, photo TV setup, FSS preparations for HST berthing, EMU checkout, and EVA-1 preparations to name a few.

EXCITED!!!!! What do you think.