Shuttle tank work ahead of schedule

Work on the external tank for NASA's second post-Columbia shuttle test flight might be completed ahead of schedule, and a transport barge will depart Kennedy Space Center Friday to go fetch it.

The covered barge is slated to depart the KSC turn basin around 8 a.m. Friday, heading to the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the tank is being manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

Shuttle program managers will conduct a shipment review Feb. 23 at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to determine when the barge will leave the New Orleans factory on a five-day trip to KSC.

A scheduled March 3 departure date might be moved up as much as a week if all tank work is completed and shuttle program managers decide that shipping the tank earlier would be the right course to take.

NASA's shuttle fleet has been grounded since a one-pound piece of foam popped off the Protuberance Air Load (PAL) ramp on an external tank during the agency's first post-Columbia flight last July, nearly striking Discovery's right wing.

A 1.67-pound piece of external tank foam blasted a hole in Columbia's left wing, allowing hot gasses to destroy the ship during an ill-fated atmospheric reentry on Feb. 1, 2003.

Designed to protect pressurization lines and electrical cables that run along the outside of the tank, the 37-foot PAL ramp was removed from the tank being built for NASA's next shuttle mission.

Engineers still must complete wind-tunnel testing and computer analyses to make certain it is safe to fly without the PAL ramp.

NASA has not yet set an official date for the upcoming launch of Discovery. The agency hopes the test flight to the International Space Station can be launched in May.