Launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center is quiet as shuttle Discovery awaits a decision about whether it can make another launch attempt this year. Engineers continue to study an area on the external tank where metal support beams were repaired after cracking earlier this month.
They're analyzing the likelihood that more of the beams called "stringers" could crack when the shuttle is fueled again, potentially dislodging dangerous chunks of insulating foam toward the orbiter during ascent, or if the tank is safe to fly "as is."
Before Thanksgiving, managers ruled out the possibility of launching during a window that opened this weekend. Plans to reconnect ordnance on two solid rocket boosters and to begin pressurizing the main propulsion system for flight were put on hold.
The next earliest attempt is now no earlier than Dec. 17 to Dec. 20.
Shuttle program managers will meet again Thursday for a status update that could signal if the analysis is nearly complete or if more work is required, potentially including a tanking test or even rolling the shuttle off the pad.
At the launch pad today, technicians plan to finish placing dots around an external tank plate where a hydrogen vent line leaked and scrubbed a Nov. 5 launch attempt.
The reference dots will provide a visual aid during fueling of the tank with supercold propellants to show if the vent line moves and becomes misaligned.
IMAGE: On Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, the cracks on space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank have been repaired. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston
8 comments:
I hardley care anymore...
Then why waste time commenting...
Did not waste much time...
4 words then 4 more now...
I do care about 4 words worth
Hardley ?
Launching and operating Spaceships is difficult, especially a complex system like the Shuttle. Interesting though is that a way more simple (but also less capable) system like the old Russian Soyuz launches like clockwork every time in all kinds of weather that would surely keep the Shuttle on the ground...
We will fly when, and only when it is safe to do so! It is a shame that some folks do not understand how and why we have these systems in place. Also, to those who do not care, I guess when it finally hits you in the pocket that the shuttle program is gone, then you might care! When unemployment is so high that no taxes are being paid, and your local businesses are boarded up, and schoools close, crime is out of control, then what? Whom will you blame? Perhaps, those who voted for hope and change! We need a series of programs like what we had in the 30's that put people back to work. Until then, we all are going to suffer!
8:54 Your message is clear....
Be afraid....be very afraid...crime is gonna be out of control !!!
Br afraid !!!!
I know this, Im gonna start buying up property at about 3 months after the layoffs. Gonna use my money that I made at the cape...he, he, he,. Don't be afraid...buy buy buy.
Shoot I have more money in the coke machines at the cape than some people will ever make.
Yea I have hope and change...I "hope" to buy lots of real estate with my "Change".
Shuttle Milk has been really good but it's time to get off the tit.
Ares I / Orion is the post-shuttle space access system that can be ready quickly and serve as the reliable "American Soyuz" for generations to come -- which is why some of us continue to lobby for its completion. And oh yeah, doing so would keep the lights on at KSC, Houston, Huntsville, Colorado, Utah and a dozen other critical space places across this country as well...
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