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Nasa targets next autumn for next shuttle flight
Cape Canaveral (Florida), Oct 04: Nasa is targeting next autumn for its next space shuttle launch, saying there are too many post-Columbia repairs to fly any sooner.
Cape Canaveral (Florida), Oct 04: Nasa is targeting next autumn for its next space shuttle launch, saying there are too many post-Columbia repairs to fly any sooner.
Senior space agency officials decided yesterday to aim
for a launch in September 2004 for Atlantis. That date could
slip even further into next year or even into 2005, depending
on the progress of the shuttle repair work.
Nasa had been using next march as a planning date for the first shuttle flight following the Columbia disaster.
``We're going to be very much driven by milestones and by the content that we have to accomplish here,'' said Bill Readdy, the head of Nasa's human spaceflight programme.
Readdy said the work involves coming up with astronaut repair kits for the shuttle's outer thermal layer, redesigning the fuel tank so insulating foam does not break off and building an extension boom for the shuttle robot arm to conduct in-orbit surveys of the entire ship.
``I can't tell you whether or not we're going to have more (repairs) creep in over time, whether we're going to come up on some technical hurdles,'' Readdy said. ``I can almost guarantee that this is going to be a long, uphill climb back to return to flight. But I'll guarantee you that we're getting an awful lot smarter about this.''
Columbia and its seven astronauts were doomed by a flyaway piece of foam that tore a hole in the leading edge of the left wing during liftoff. The ship broke apart over Texas in February after the searing gases of re-entry penetrated the gash and melted the wing from the inside out.
Bureau Report
Nasa had been using next march as a planning date for the first shuttle flight following the Columbia disaster.
``We're going to be very much driven by milestones and by the content that we have to accomplish here,'' said Bill Readdy, the head of Nasa's human spaceflight programme.
Readdy said the work involves coming up with astronaut repair kits for the shuttle's outer thermal layer, redesigning the fuel tank so insulating foam does not break off and building an extension boom for the shuttle robot arm to conduct in-orbit surveys of the entire ship.
``I can't tell you whether or not we're going to have more (repairs) creep in over time, whether we're going to come up on some technical hurdles,'' Readdy said. ``I can almost guarantee that this is going to be a long, uphill climb back to return to flight. But I'll guarantee you that we're getting an awful lot smarter about this.''
Columbia and its seven astronauts were doomed by a flyaway piece of foam that tore a hole in the leading edge of the left wing during liftoff. The ship broke apart over Texas in February after the searing gases of re-entry penetrated the gash and melted the wing from the inside out.
Bureau Report