STS-3xx

The STS-300 mission is the current designation by NASA that will denote any Space Shuttle rescue mission launched on a short notice to the International Space Station, if NASA Mission Control deems that the orbiter's heat shielding tiles and reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panels are damaged beyond the normal repair methods.

The process for STS-300 will allow NASA to launch, for the STS-114 mission, the Space Shuttle Atlantis within a period of 40 days. As to save weight, and allow the 7-person crew to return to Earth safely, many shortcuts would have to be made, and the risks of launching another orbiter would have to undertaken. If such a mission is possible, the following timeline would be followed:

T-35 Days: Flight Directors and NASA managers declare attached orbiter inoperable and unrecoverable. Orders are processed to NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center to prepare designated rescue orbiter for launch.

T-25 Days: Damaged orbiter is jettisoned by ISS crew. NASA mission controllers will then steer the damaged orbiter away from ISS, fire the onboard engines, and send the orbiter to a crash landing in the Pacific Ocean, away from known shipping lanes and reducing debris damage similar to that caused by the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Both ISS and Shuttle crews are placed on strict rationing diets to preserve onboard food supplies.

T-15 Days: Rescus Shuttle is rolled out of Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) by crawler-transporter to either Launchpad 39-A or 39-B, whichever was not used by the regular Shuttle launch.

T-10 Days: Four-man rescue crew (commander, co-pilot, and two mission specialists) arrive at Kennedy Space Center and is placed in semi-quarantine (similar to that employed in Project Apollo) to prevent launch-scrubbing injuries or illnesses.

T-3 Days: Final launch preparations commence.

T-1 Day: Launchpad technicians fill rescue Suttle external tank with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. New ET bipod ramp and solid rocket joint heaters are turned on.

T-5 Hours: Rescue crew are suited in orange launch-entry suits, transfered to launchpad and enters rescue orbiter.

T-3 Hours: Final hold for "GO-NO GO" decision by Mission Control.

T=0: LAUNCH OF STS-300 RESCUE SHUTTLE

T+2 Minutes: SRB Separation

T+8 Minutes: Main Engine Cut-Off (MECO) and ET separation.

T+11 Minutes: Rescue shuttle in orbit.

T+2 Days: Rescue shuttle docks with ISS after thorough

T+4 Days (earliest if no tile damage): Rescue shuttle, now with 11 astronauts (rescue crew plus regular shuttle crew), undocks from ISS.

T+5 Days: Shuttle deorbits over Indian or Pacific Ocean for landing at either Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base in California. A Russian Progress resupply spacecraft is launched at later date to resupply ISS crew.