Shuttle preparing for launch tomorrow
The Discovery space shuttle was being prepared for blast-off today, with NASA managers confident that last minute hitches would not delay tomorrow’s launch.
The countdown clocks at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida are slowly ticking down towards the first manned flight since Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth two years ago, killing all seven crew.
Final tests were taking place to resolve problems with fuel tank sensors, a wind speed monitor and on tools to be used in a spacewalk.
Programme manager Bill Parsons said he was sure these would be sorted out before tomorrow’s scheduled launch at 3.51pm (8.51pm Irish Time).
“I think we’re on our way,” he said. “We’ll get it done. We have every feeling that we will be ready to go.”
Discovery will take supplies to the half built International Space Station and test methods for inspecting and fixing the shuttle’s heat shield.
Weather conditions are key and forecasters have predicted a 70% chance they will be acceptable for launch, despite the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Dennis.
There is only a five minute window in which the shuttle can launch in order for its docking at the space station to be precisely timed.
“We will be concerned about winds and rains outside the limits but it’s looking good at this point,” a NASA spokesman said.
The seven-man crew arrived at Cape Canaveral on Saturday. They range in age from 40 to 53 and are all American bar one Australian and one Japanese.
They are: Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot James Kelly and mission specialists Andrew Thomas, Charles Camarda, Wendy Laurence, Soichi Noguchi and Stephen Robinson.
The shuttle is scheduled to arrive at the space station on Friday and return to Earth on July 25.
Noguchi and Robinson will be the only two to leave the shuttle during the mission and will perform three space walks.
Over the next 24 hours, the crew will undergo medical checks, a suit fit check and take part in several briefings with programme managers and personnel.
Collins and Kelly will do some shuttle training and practise landing scenarios in a test aircraft.
The shuttle’s onboard fuel tank was filled on Monday.
Discovery has undergone 286 modifications since its last launch in 2001, including 41 recommended by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), the independent panel that examined the disaster.
It has made 30 flights since 1984.
Take-off was delayed in May to allow for extra security checks and was subsequently forced to wait for acceptable conditions.
A four-man rescue crew, including British-born Piers Sellers, will be on stand-by in case the shuttle gets into so much difficulty it needs help.
The risky rescue mission was planned in the aftermath of the Columbia disaster when the shuttle shattered into pieces in 2003.
A panel appointed to monitor pre-flight recommendations and safety checks said the space agency had passed 12 of 15 recommendations made by the CAIB in 2003.
Despite the shortcomings it concluded that the agency was safe to launch the shuttle.
