Space shuttle 'safe for now'
2005-07-08 08:01
Cape Canaveral - Discovery is safe on its launching pad for now and Nasa is still aiming for a lift-off next week, but Hurricane Dennis could force the space shuttle to return to its hangar and delay the first mission since the Columbia disaster.
Shuttle managers decided on Thursday evening to begin initial preparations to move Discovery from the pad, as the hurricane increased in intensity and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico and Florida's southern tip.
A final call on whether to haul the shuttle back to its hangar - and postpone its flight by at least a week - was expected on Friday afternoon.
Dennis is expected to stay well to the west of Cape Canaveral. But Nasa is worried that wind on the fringes of the hurricane could reach 129 kph this weekend, the limit for what the shuttle could endure at its oceanside launch pad.
Any precautionary work for a move off the pad will not jeopardise Wednesday's targeted launch, if managers decide to keep Discovery where it is, said Nasa spokesperson George Diller.
Keeping options open
"We're going to keep our options open," Diller said. "We're still trying to protect the 13th."
Last summer, Kennedy Space Centre was hit by three hurricanes that caused considerable damage, particularly to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where Discovery would seek shelter in a storm.
Discovery already has made one trip back to the assembly building since arriving at the pad in April, to get a new external fuel tank with an extra heater. Engineers wanted the extra heater to prevent dangerous ice build-up from the super-cold fuel. The work delayed lift-off from May to July.
Nasa has until the end of July to send Discovery on a flight to the international space station, otherwise it must wait until September to ensure a daylight launch.
Managers want the best possible views of Discovery at lift-off to see if any foam insulation or other debris falls off the tank and hits the shuttle, as happened during Columbia's 2003 flight.
The hole left in Columbia's wing caused the spacecraft to break up during re-entry. All seven astronauts were killed.
On the net:
spaceflight.nasa.gov
- AP