page_title: STS-117
section_title: Hail damage
hierarchical_section_title: STS-117 / Shuttle processing / Hail damage
caption_attribution_description: On an upper level of high bay 1 of the Vehicle Assembly Building, technicians secure protective material around the base of the nose cone of Atlantis' external tank. The nose cone will undergo repair for hail damage.
context_page_description: STS-117 was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis, launched from pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center on 8 June 2007. Atlantis lifted off from the launch pad at 19:38 EDT. Damage from a hail storm on 26 February 2007 had previously caused the launch to be postponed from an originally-planned launch date of 15 March 2007. The launch of STS-117 marked the 250th orbital human spaceflight.
  Atlantis delivered to the International Space Station the second starboard truss segment and its associated energy systems, including a set of solar arrays. During the course of the mission the crew installed the new truss segment, retracted one set of solar arrays, and unfolded the new set on the starboard side of the station. STS-117 also brought Expedition 15 crewmember Clayton Anderson to the station, and returned with ISS crewmember Sunita Williams.
  On 11 June 2007, NASA mission managers announced a two-day extension of the mission, adding a fourth extra-vehicular activity. These two days were inserted into the mission timeline after flight day 8. This possibility had been discussed prior to launch.
context_section_description: Following a hailstorm at KSC on 26 February 2007, inspections of the stack found damage to the shuttle and the external tank. Hailstones as large as golf balls had created around 1,000–2,000 divots in the tank's foam insulation, damaged at least one Ice Frost Ramp on the tank, and caused minor surface damage to about 26 heat shield tiles on Atlantis's left wing.
  On 4 March 2007 the STS-117 stack was similarly rolled back into the VAB. Following additional inspections, repairs to the orbiter and tank were carried out to return Atlantis to flight readiness. After completion of the repairs, Atlantis (along with her distinctly speckled external tank) was rolled out to pad 39A for the second time during the morning of 15 May 2007. A second Flight Readiness Review took place on 30–31 May 2007.
  The hail damage to Atlantis caused major changes to the shuttle launch manifest at that time, pushing STS-118 back to 8 August 2007 (which could not have flown until the installation of the S3/S4 truss segment carried by Atlantis was completed), STS-120 back to 23 October 2007, and Atlantis's return on STS-122 back to a targeted launch date on 6 December 2007. Atlantis on STS-122 eventually lifted off on 7 February 2008.
caption: Technicians repair the ET nose cone.
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