|
NASA clears shuttle Discovery for landing
04 Aug 2005 22:20:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
|
(Updates with briefing, quotes) By Irene Klotz HOUSTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - NASA on Thursday cleared the space shuttle Discovery to return home after dismissing lingering concerns about its condition, and told the crew to pack up their spacesuits because there was no need for a fourth spacewalk. Discovery's scheduled return to Cape Canaveral in Florida on Monday will be the first shuttle landing since Columbia disintegrated over Texas 2 1/2 years ago as it glided through the atmosphere on re-entry. "I will not tell you that it is zero risk," shuttle deputy program manager Wayne Hale told reporters. "(But) it is the lowest risk, the best choice and the unanimous decision of the engineers and the management team that we should re-enter as is." Engineers had been studying whether a piece of damaged cloth insulation beneath the commander's left cockpit window could break off and damage a part of the shuttle critical for flight, such as the rudder speed brake located on the tail. Wind tunnel tests at the Ames Research Center in California, however, convinced managers that the blanket should stay attached to the shuttle during its descent. In a worst-case scenario, there was a 1.5 percent chance that the fabric would hit the shuttle if it ripped off, Hale said. If NASA had decided to repair or remove the damaged blanket, Discovery's 13-day mission would likely have been extended another day so astronauts Soichi Noguchi of Japan and NASA's Steve Robinson could make a fourth spacewalk on Friday. The shuttle has been parked at the International Space Station since July 28 and was scheduled to depart from the orbiting outpost early on Saturday. CLOTH STRIPS During their spacewalks, Noguchi and Robinson restored the space station's prime steering system, installed a storage platform and removed two protruding cloth strips from the shuttle's heat shield in the shuttle program's first spacewalk to the underside of an orbiter. NASA feared the strips could cause dangerous heat damage as the shuttle plunges through the atmosphere for landing. U.S. President George W. Bush told reporters at his Texas ranch that he was amazed at the shuttle crew's repair work and confident in the mission directors' judgment. "I know that the mission directors will make the right decision about how to proceed. Ours is a country that values the safety of our citizens, particularly those we ask to take risks in space," Bush said. On Thursday, the combined crew of Discovery and the space station, nine in all, paid tribute to the Columbia crew and other astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in space accidents. They took turns speaking while television shots from the shuttle showed a sunlit Earth that passed into night. "Tragically, two years ago, we came once more to realize that we had let our guard down. We became lost in our hubris and learned once more the terrible price that must be paid for our failures," said mission specialist Charles Camarda. "In that accident, we not only lost seven colleagues, we lost seven friends." Columbia broke apart before landing on Feb. 1, 2003, and the seven astronauts on board died. Loose insulation foam from the fuel tank struck the wing heat shield at launch 16 days earlier, causing a hole that allowed superheated gases to penetrate and destroy the shuttle when it descended into the atmosphere. NASA spent 2 1/2 years and $1 billion on safety upgrades after Columbia, but videos showed loose tank foam at Discovery's launch last week. The agency suspended further shuttle flights until the foam problem is fixed. (Additional reporting by Jeff Franks in Houston.)
|
|
|
Reset