Sensors removed from Discovery's tank before more inspections

After Discovery's return to the Vehicle Assembly Building Wednesday, Kennedy Space Center teams today are at work removing nearly 90 sensors installed on the shuttle's external fuel tank for last week's tanking test and applying fresh insulating foam.

Teams will be off for the Christmas holiday before returning to begin X-ray scans of the tank's mid-section.

Engineers want to examine the condition of 108 vertical, U-shaped support beams called "stringers," each 21 feet long, after supercold propellants were loaded into the tank last Friday.

Two stringers are believed to have cracked when the shuttle was fueled Nov. 5, prompting an investigation and a launch delay until at least Feb. 3.

Shuttle managers are expected to decide next Thursday if modifications to the tank are needed before Discovery's final flight.

A roll back out to pad 39A could occur as early as mid-January to prepare for launch opportunities between Feb. 3 and Feb. 10. Senior NASA executives are expected to gather at KSC for another Flight Readiness Review in late January.

IMAGE: Work platforms inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center began to surround space shuttle Discovery, its solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank at dawn Wednesday. The shuttle rolled back from Launch Pad 39A so technicians can examine the external tank and re-apply foam where 89 sensors were installed on the tank's aluminum skin for an instrumented tanking test on Dec. 17. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux