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NASA Upbeat On Shuttle Launch For mid-July
Washington (AFP) Jun 25, 2005 NASA officials have said they are optimistic that space shuttle flights can resume on schedule in mid-July, two and a half years after the Columbia disaster. "Everything looks like it's set to make it for the launch day," sometime between July 13 and 31, program director Bill Parsons said in a conference call Friday. NASA engineers on Friday finished a thorough review of modifications made to the shuttle, as recommended by the board of inquiry into the February 1, 2003 Columbia accident, in an effort to avert a repeat of the catastrophic shuttle loss. The shuttle Discovery has a new external fuel tank, while a new heater has been added to the feedline bellows. The heater is designed to minimize potential ice and frost buildup on the bellows, a part of the pipeline that carries liquid oxygen to the shuttle's main engines. The new tank has also been fitted with temperature sensors and accelerometers to gather information about the tank's performance and measure vibration during flight. "There is no big technical issue we are working on currently," Parsons said, adding: "We feel the risk is acceptable." "At the end of the day, the recommendation from the board was that we were in an acceptable risk posture, and they recommended to me, the program manager, that we proceed on with the launch," he added. "I accepted the recommendation," he said. "Next week, we'll have the flight readiness review and further review of our readiness will be done at that time, and we will determine if we are ready to go on and set the launch date." Only NASA administrator Michael Griffin can give the final green light. Shuttle flights have been on hold since February 2003, when the shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, killing its seven crew members. The crash has been attributed to damage sustained by the spacecraft after it was hit by chunks of insulating foam that broke off during liftoff. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
The Folly of Our Age: The Space Shuttle
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 20, 2005Like the monster in some ghastly horror movie rising from the dead for the umpteenth time, the space shuttle is back on the launch pad. This grotesque, lethal white elephant - 14 deaths in 113 flights - is the grandest, grossest technological folly of our age. |
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