BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhuanet) -- NASA managers are giving a final review on Discovery flight readiness and hopeful to determine a launch date in a two-day meeting starting from Wednesday.
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NASA managers began a two-day meeting on Wednesday hopeful they would confirm a date for the next space shuttle launch in July, barring some last minute snag. (Photo: Xinhua) |
The launch window runs from July 13 to 31.
"We'll emerge with the knowledge that we're either ready to go, barring the unforeseen, or that some late-breaking bit of information has been brought up," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin was quoted as saying by Reuters in a televised broadcast.
Griffin expressed the confidence one day after the task force overseeing NASA's return-to-flight preparations concluded the US space agency has failed to fully meet three of the 15 safety recommendations put forth by investigators of the Columbia accident.
"Based on what I know now, we are ready to go," Griffin told the House Science Committee.
The task force said NASA has not eliminated the possibility of debris falling off the external fuel tank and striking the shuttle on liftoff. In addition, NASA has not managed to sufficiently toughen the shuttle's shell in order to resist damages from striking, and has failed to develop the capability to make emergency repairs in space.
However, panel members noticed the significant progress NASA has made elsewhere, and believed NASA's unfulfilment of the three requirements would not threaten shuttle flight.
Discovery was rolled out to the launch pad in April, but NASA halted plans for a May lift-off to do additional work on a redesigned fuel tank.
NASA has grounded its shuttle fleet since the Columbia disaster in Feb. 2003, in which all seven astronauts aboard were killed. The accident was blamed on a suitcase-sized insulation foam that fell off the external fuel tank on liftoff and harmed Columbia's wing, leading to the shuttle's disintegration during re-entry. Enditem
(Agencies) | 
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