Senior NASA managers will meet next Monday for a "launch status briefing" that could determine Discovery's new target launch date.
The next launch window runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6, followed by opportunities in late February.
Multiple shuttle repairs are still progress following Discovery's Nov. 5 launch scrub.
Engineers today gave the go-ahead for the Tuesday replacement of the last major piece of hardware associated with the hydrogen gas leak that caused the scrub.
Technicians will install a seven-inch quick disconnect device in a launch pad line that vents hydrogen from the shuttle's external tank to a flare stack.
Teams last week replaced a plate and seal where the vent line hooks up to the external tank. Similar leaks at that location have scrubbed four launches since last year.
NASA officials say engineers are confident the replacement parts are aligned properly to within hundredths of an inch after taking the most detailed measurements ever of the system and its internal components.
Managers are leaning toward ordering a tanking test before Discovery's next launch attempt to prove the good fit, but no decision has been made.
In other repairs, teams at launch pad 39A are soon expected to remove the second of two cracked support strips on the external tank. Replacement hardware is being delivered from the the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, NASA's external tank production facility.
Also Tuesday, crews plan to install a panel with a set of 18 new circuit breakers in Discovery's cockpit.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
5 comments:
Let's all hope this mission is not yet another NASA oversight or carelessness like the past "Challenger tragedy"
Your statement is a rather stupid one. First, why put Challenger tragedy in quotes. Do you not agree it was a tragedy? Second, if there was carelessness and oversights involved, they would have launched on November 1. Do you see all the work they are doing to make sure this launch is as safe as it can be?
Go back to your box.
Anonymous @8:04PM Seems you are in your box & don't see the point. Learn from your past before it s too late & then all NASA will say "again" to the families is that they regret what happened although it was clear that it was because of the carelessness of their own workers. Maybe this will remind you of what actually happened to the Challenger & KSC workers admitting they should have done more. It takes only one worker to not do their part. Nobody said all shuttle workers are careless but some obviously were in the past. Takes only 1 oversight especially with more layoffs awaiting in January.
“ These KSC workers admitted they should have done more to prevent the inevitable fatal Challenger disaster .”
Careless and self-centered better describe some shuttle workers.
From NASA's news after the Challenger Disaster or NASA'S careless blunder:
“I should have done more," the engineer told me, shaking his head. "I could have done more."
That engineer and several others were not surprised when Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. They worked for Morton Thiokol (now ATK Thiokol), the Utah-based NASA contractor which produced the solid rocket motors that lifted space shuttles from their launch pads. Some of those Thiokol engineers expected o-ring failures at liftoff. They knew that cold overnight temperatures forecast before launch would stiffen the rubber o-rings. They knew that stiff o-rings didn't provide a secure seal. In fact, there had been evidence of leakage, what the engineers called "blowby," on an earlier shuttle flight”
Looks like the stupid one living in the box is Anonymous @ 8:04PM. KSC workers are milking every overtime hour they can.Unemployment won't be giving overtime rates like the federal government.
God Bless our astronauts on Nov 30 that they have a safe flight & return without any mishaps.
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