KSC starts new year with Discovery tank repairs

After a holiday weekend off, Kennedy Space Center technicians today are beginning repairs to small cracks on several support beams on Discovery's external tank that were found during X-ray inspections last week.

Program managers are scheduled to meet again this afternoon to continue reviewing engineering analysis that has attempted to explain what caused the cracks in the beam's called "stringers" on the tank's mid-section, which is called the intertank.

A decision on whether to reinforce some stringers to reduce the potential for cracks was put off last week when the new cracks were found on the side of the intertank facing away from the orbiter (opposite the side shown above).

That decision could come as soon as today or later in the week.

NASA continues to target a launch as soon as Feb. 3, the opening of a launch window that extends to Feb. 10. That would require rolling Discovery back out to the launch pad within about two weeks.

So far, a total of eight cracks have been found in five of the intertank's 108 stringers. More scans of the stringers are in progress using "backscatter" machines, a different process than last week's "computer radiography," or X-ray scans.

The three damaged stringers found last week in the Vehicle Assembly Building will be repaired the same way as the two found at the launch pad in November.

After cutting away insulating foam, cracked stringer sections will be removed and replaced with thicker pieces called "doublers," and the foam will be reapplied. The process should take two to three days.

IMAGE: Preparations were under way in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 22 to examine space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank. Shown here is the nose of the shuttle, which still is attached to the external tank and solid rocket boosters. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis