The crew
Posted on 07/13/2005 4:56:41 AM PDT by Momaw Nadon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA managers put a brief but embarrassing setback behind them as the countdown to the first space shuttle flight in 2 1/2 years entered its final hours Wednesday, with only predicted thunderstorms posing some concern.
A temporary window cover fell off the shuttle and damaged thermal tiles near the tail Tuesday afternoon, just two hours after NASA declared Discovery ready to return the nation to space for the first time since the Columbia disaster.
The mishap was an eerie reminder of the very thing that doomed Columbia — damage to the spaceship's fragile thermal shield.
Discovery and its crew of seven were set to blast off at 3:51 p.m. EDT on a flight to the international space station.
Fueling of the external tank, set to begin about an hour before sunrise, was delayed while workers changed a part on a launch-pad heater. NASA officials said the swapping out of the part wasn't expected to affect the launch time.
The lightweight plastic cover on one of Discovery's cockpit windows came loose while the spaceship was on the launch pad, falling more than 60 feet and striking a bulge in the fuselage, said Stephanie Stilson, the NASA manager in charge of Discovery's launch preparations.
No one knows why the cover — held in place with tape and weighing less than 2 pounds — fell off, she said. The covers are used prior to launch to protect the windows while the shuttle is on the launch pad, then removed before liftoff.
Two tiles on an aluminum panel were damaged, and the entire panel was replaced with a spare; Stilson called it a minor repair job.
Space agency managers held one last meeting Tuesday to address lingering technical concerns and later pronounced Discovery ready to fly.
"We have done everything that we know to do," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said afterward.
The families of the seven astronauts killed during Columbia's catastrophic re-entry praised the accident investigators, a NASA oversight group and the space agency itself for defining and reducing the dangers.
Like those who lost loved ones in the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire and the Challenger launch explosion, the Columbia families said they grieve deeply "but know the exploration of space must go on."
"We hope we have learned and will continue to learn from each of these accidents so that we will be as safe as we can be in this high-risk endeavor," they said in a statement. "Godspeed, Discovery."
Discovery will be setting off on the 114th space shuttle flight in 24 years with a redesigned external fuel tank and nearly 50 other improvements made in the wake of the Columbia tragedy.
A chunk of foam insulation the size of a carry-on suitcase fell off Columbia's fuel tank at liftoff and slammed into a reinforced carbon panel on the shuttle's wing, creating a hole that brought the spacecraft crashing down in pieces during its return to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003.
During their 12-day flight, Discovery's astronauts will test various techniques for patching cracks and holes in the thermal shielding.
The crew members also will try out a new 50-foot boom designed to give them a three-dimensional laser view of the wings and nose cap and help them find any damage caused by liftoff debris. That is on top of all the pictures of the spacecraft that will be taken by more than 100 cameras positioned around the launching site and aboard two planes and the shuttle itself.
Until the window cover fell, NASA's only concern was the weather. Because of thunderstorms in the forecast, the chances of acceptable weather at launch time were put at 60 percent, down from 70 percent a day earlier.
"We're just hoping that the weather gods are kind," Griffin said. "Weather's always out there. We'll just deal with it as it comes."
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On the Net:
NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov
http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/cdt/indexv.html
After page loads, go to the streaming video drop down box in the upper right hand corner and select either windows media player or real time.
We already do, so get a clue, ok?
Or is that space station up there with people in it doing scientific experiments just a figment of my imagination?
Go ahead and believe what you want about that. There are obviously a lot of you or else the government could never con the country into this waste.
OK, so what is the mission then besides bringing along a jack and a spare tire in order to get back home?
Gad! What planet are you from?
Oh heavens, where to start? Ever use a computer? Drink Tang? Fruit juice from a pouch? Talk on a cellphone or a regular one? Ever wonder why we won the Cold War? Use medication? Eat food from a grocery store? Watch a weather forecast? Have a dish on your roof?
I could go on and on... However, considering your statements, it would just be a waste of time as I am sure you fully believe them. Just how you do is beyond me...
You need to look up from the book and see the world around you.
Nice, but given the history of the shuttle "Shepards Prayer" might be more appropriate. (Alan Shepard, that is...)
What a load. Please back that up with any decent sort of source.
Go outside and look around...
And I will see that NASA "Returns $7 dolalrs for every dollar spent"?
Sorry for the typos.
Good luck in convincing anyone. There is a mindset among a number of folks here that anything NASA is government waste and anyone working there is white collar welfare.
At current costs of $11,750 per pound to orbit, a 180 pound human and supplies is over $2 million just to get them to orbit. What is needed is cheap, densely-stored, abundant energy.
A flight to perfect safety procedures is not a wasted one to me. It'll save lives for future flights.
Yep, that's a fact. As my old Pappy used to say, "You can lead a whore to knowledge, but you cannot make her think."
Yes, off topic, but I like to look at her...
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