NASA Confident Shuttle Will Launch on Time
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - NASA pressed ahead with the countdown Tuesday to the first shuttle flight since the Columbia tragedy 2 1/2 years ago, with afternoon thunderstorms on launch day the space agency's biggest worry.
Discovery and its crew of seven were set to blast off Wednesday afternoon on a mission to the international space station.
``The vehicle is ready. The team is ready. I think our nation is ready,'' shuttle test director Jeff Spaulding said. ``With some luck our weather will be ready so that we can begin our historic mission of returning the shuttle to flight and bringing our crew safely home.''
The weather forecast deteriorated slightly. Because of showers in the forecast, the space agency put the chances of an on-time launch at 60 percent, down from 70 percent on Monday.
NASA managers said there were still a few minor technical problems to resolve but they were confident they would not delay liftoff. Some of the problems involved fuel tank sensors that didn't read properly during a recent test and a balloon monitor that gathers data on upper-level wind speed.
One final flight-readiness meeting was set for Tuesday afternoon.
``We'll get it done,'' said Bill Parsons, manager of the space shuttle program. ``We have every feeling that we will be ready to go.''
NASA managers held a flight-readiness meeting Monday that lasted 3 1/2 hours, considerably longer than was customary before Columbia took off on its final, fatally flawed mission. Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said there was a spirited discussion, and dissenting opinions were heard over a few technical issues.
He said the discussion was ``just a new symbol of the openness'' at NASA since the Columbia disaster. Investigators blamed the tragedy in part on the space agency's ``broken safety culture,'' or a tendency to downplay risks and discourage engineers from speaking up.
Columbia was hit by a suitcase-size piece of insulating foam that fell off its external tank during liftoff. The crack allowed fiery gases to penetrate the wing during re-entry, destroying the spacecraft and killing all seven astronauts aboard.
Discovery is outfitted with a redesigned fuel tank and has dozens of motion and temperature sensors embedded in the wings to detect any blows from fuel-tank foam or other debris. The spaceship also holds a brand-new laser-tipped 50-foot boom that will be used by the astronauts to survey the wings and nose cap for any cracks or holes.
More than 100 cameras on the ground and aboard two planes will focus on Discovery as it climbs toward orbit, and spy satellites as well as astronauts on both the shuttle and the international space station will take their own pictures. The shuttle will spend more than a week at the space station, replenishing its cupboards and repairing broken equipment both inside and out.
The astronauts will test techniques for inspecting and repairing the spaceship in orbit.
NASA managers said they were exuberant in the final days before launch.
``It's like Christmas is coming,'' Hale said Monday.
On the Net:
NASA:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov
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Liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery on NASA's Return to Flight Mission is scheduled for 3:51 p.m. EDT July 13th.
Goodluck and Godspeed! -troj