Shuttle Discovery's tanking test will occur no earlier than Friday as cold weather and strong wind have slowed preparations. Workers at launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center continue to instrument the tank with temperature sensors, after work through the weekend finished attaching strain gauges.
In total, nearly 90 instruments are being placed on the tank's mid-section. Fresh insulating foam will be applied over those areas.
The sensors won't bond properly to the tank's metal skin in cold weather. Specially constructed environmental enclosures and thermal blankets are being used to control temperatures.
Temperature constraints to the tanking event itself, which had been planned for Wednesday, could also have been a problem mid-week.
If the work progresses well enough to conduct the test Friday morning, tanking teams would be called to their stations Wednesday evening.
The test is an effort to gather data as part of an investigation into what caused two metal brackets on the tank's mid-section to crack.
The cracks were discovered and repaired last month, but NASA hasn't yet been able to determine a root cause that would establish if Discovery's tank is safe to fly. The shuttle's last mission is now planned no earlier than Feb. 3, 2011.
IMAGE: Technicians prepare space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank for a tanking test on launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Teams have installed environmental enclosures on the tank, removed foam and prepared the tank's skin for approximately 89 strain gauges and thermocouples. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
5 comments:
NASA WISHES it was like SpaceX. Their techs would have had that issue fixed and launched by now...don't hate because you know it's true...
Milk it baby, milk it!
Milk that Glorified Social Welfare Program for all it's worth!
The Socialist are Milking the Tax Payers again.
Will someone please disconnect Antagonist from his federal retirement payments!
Antagonist is a "Glorified" MORON.... maybe he will die soon...
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