Discovery At The Pad

Shuttle Discovery was transported to its launchpad amid growing optimism that it will be ready for a July 1 liftoff.

Uncertainty about whether the shuttle's external fuel tank is safe to fly after removal of a foam ramp from the tank's exterior. The ramp was taken off after a 1-pound piece of foam broke free and narrowly missed the shuttle during Discovery's July 2005 launch:

NASA engineers have completed wind-tunnel tests to gather data about the effects of flying the tank without the ramp. Researchers now are studying the data to ensure the redesign is safe. Preliminary indications from the analysis are "good," said Wayne Hale, NASA's space-shuttle-program manager. "But we won't know until we add up the last column of numbers."

"I have a good degree of confidence it will all come out good, or we wouldn't have rolled the vehicle out," he said.

NASA managers are scheduled to meet June 7 to make a final decision on the changes to the tank, although it's possible the issue might not be resolved until Discovery's Flight Readiness Review on June 16 and 17.

Discovery's 4.2-mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B took hours.
Mounted on the Mobile Launcher Platform and carried by the mammoth crawler-transporter, the "stack" rolled along at less than one mile an hour, and arrived at the launch pad early Friday evening.

Images courtesy of NASA.

Comments

[Walter E. Wallis]

NASA is risking the lives of Astronauts and the shuttle program because of their reluctance to tell greenies their rejection of Freon blown insulation is a killer.
Time to hand space back to the Air Force where it should have stayed all along.