Ought Six
02-13-2005, 08:16 AM
NASA getting ready for a return to space (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0213nasa13.html)
Safety changes made to shuttle
John-Thor Dahlburg
The Los Angeles Times, via AZ Central
Feb. 13, 2005 12:00 AM
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - With the resumption of space shuttle flight possibly just three months away, launch fever has begun to rise at America's space port, and Thursday, the commander of the first mission scheduled since the Columbia tragedy said she was ready to go.
"Clearly I'm not going to fly on something that's unsafe," said Eileen Collins, a former colonel in the Air Force and a veteran of three space flights.
Collins, 48, and her six crewmates, clad in blue flight suits, were at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic coast to inspect the orbiter Discovery, including the numerous modifications designed to make shuttle flight safer. The program has been grounded for more than two years since Columbia disintegrated on re-entry Feb. 1, 2003. All seven astronauts aboard died. Investigators later blamed the accident on a briefcase-sized chunk of foam insulation that broke off the shuttle's external fuel tank and slammed into the orbiter's left wing, gouging a hole.
Since then, the foam has been removed from part of the external tank, temperature and motion sensors were installed in the wings to detect potentially dangerous impacts and a 50-foot-long boom was placed in the orbiter's cargo bay that Collins and her crew will be able to use to inspect the shuttle's thermal tiles during flight.
In an interview, launch director Michael Leinbach said, "It's all converging on what looks like May 15 to start flying the shuttle again."
On that day, blastoff and the separation of the external tank from the orbiter could take place during daylight, which is desirable from a safety standpoint, Leinbach said. He said he would be recommending that date, but that a National Aeronautics and Space Administration committee would have the final say.
As America's space establishment prepares for the potential spring mission, "people are pumped," Leinbach said. Because of lessons learned from the Columbia disaster and the 1986 explosion of Challenger, which killed all seven aboard, the 20-year veteran of NASA said the coming shuttle missions should be the safest ever.
Safety changes made to shuttle
John-Thor Dahlburg
The Los Angeles Times, via AZ Central
Feb. 13, 2005 12:00 AM
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - With the resumption of space shuttle flight possibly just three months away, launch fever has begun to rise at America's space port, and Thursday, the commander of the first mission scheduled since the Columbia tragedy said she was ready to go.
"Clearly I'm not going to fly on something that's unsafe," said Eileen Collins, a former colonel in the Air Force and a veteran of three space flights.
Collins, 48, and her six crewmates, clad in blue flight suits, were at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic coast to inspect the orbiter Discovery, including the numerous modifications designed to make shuttle flight safer. The program has been grounded for more than two years since Columbia disintegrated on re-entry Feb. 1, 2003. All seven astronauts aboard died. Investigators later blamed the accident on a briefcase-sized chunk of foam insulation that broke off the shuttle's external fuel tank and slammed into the orbiter's left wing, gouging a hole.
Since then, the foam has been removed from part of the external tank, temperature and motion sensors were installed in the wings to detect potentially dangerous impacts and a 50-foot-long boom was placed in the orbiter's cargo bay that Collins and her crew will be able to use to inspect the shuttle's thermal tiles during flight.
In an interview, launch director Michael Leinbach said, "It's all converging on what looks like May 15 to start flying the shuttle again."
On that day, blastoff and the separation of the external tank from the orbiter could take place during daylight, which is desirable from a safety standpoint, Leinbach said. He said he would be recommending that date, but that a National Aeronautics and Space Administration committee would have the final say.
As America's space establishment prepares for the potential spring mission, "people are pumped," Leinbach said. Because of lessons learned from the Columbia disaster and the 1986 explosion of Challenger, which killed all seven aboard, the 20-year veteran of NASA said the coming shuttle missions should be the safest ever.