NASA's Plans for Shuttles Call for Fall '04 Launching

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/04/na...al/04SHUT.html

NASA's Plans for Shuttles Call for Fall '04 Launching
Published: October 4, 2003

ASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — Setting a new timetable for resuming human
spaceflight, NASA officials announced on Friday that they would try to
launch the next shuttle mission to the International Space Station next
September or October.

As recently as last month, the agency hoped to fly again by next spring.
But on Friday, William Readdy, associate administrator for spaceflight
for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the new
target date was more realistic, given the amount of testing and
modifications that still needed to be done.

Moreover, the officials said, both the first flight and a second mission
to the space station in late fall or in winter 2004 will be considered
test flights. Their main purpose will be to confirm that all the
modifications work properly before getting back to the shuttles' primary
mission, completing construction of the station.

Although station construction will not be a focus of the first missions,
both will carry large cargo modules in the shuttle payload bays to help
replenish supplies aboard the orbiting outpost and deliver other needed
equipment.

"This is going to be a long, uphill climb back to `return to flight,' "
Mr. Readdy said in a telephone news conference from the Johnson Space
Center in Houston, where senior spaceflight managers had been meeting.
"But I'll also guarantee you that we're getting an awful lot smarter
about this and we're going to come back stronger and safer as a result."

"We're going to be very much driven by milestones and by the content
that we have to accomplish here," he said.

The shuttle fleet — now down to just three orbiters, the Atlantis, the
Discovery and the Endeavour — has been grounded since the Feb. 1
re-entry accident that destroyed the Columbia and killed its crew of
seven. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, an independent panel
that issued a report on the disaster in August, said NASA had to comply
with 15 recommendations to modify shuttles and mission procedures before
flying again.

Mr. Readdy said the goal now was to launch the Atlantis on a test flight
to the space station during a window that lasts from Sept. 12 to Oct.
10, 2004. If the first flight is successful, the second mission to
certify that the shuttle system is back in business could come in
November, William Parsons, the shuttle program manager, said.

But as fall turns into winter, opportunities to fly also narrow because
of new constraints, like the requirement that the launching take place
in daylight so liftoffs can be photographed in detail. The September
launching window is the last substantial one until after March 2005,
agency officials said recently. Flight opportunities in November 2004
and January of 2005 last only a few days, they said.

"We have some small opportunities in November and maybe January," Mr.
Parsons said optimistically.

Mr. Readdy said the shuttle test flights would demonstrate methods to
repair damaged heat-protection tiles and the crafts' leading wing edges,
as well as testing an extension boom for the shuttles' robot arm that
can be used to inspect the ship in space with cameras and laser sensors.

Other tasks to be completed before flights resume include redesigning
the external fuel tank to prevent insulating foam from breaking off.
Columbia was damaged when a piece of foam debris from the tank bashed a
hole in the leading edge of its left wing shortly after liftoff,
allowing the superhot gases of re-entry to penetrate the wing at the end
of the mission.

Mr. Parsons said that the Atlantis was still scheduled to fly the first
return-to-flight mission, but that a final decision would be made after
resolving an issue with its nose cap. Engineers recently discovered
discrepencies in records concerning the shuttle's last major overhaul in
1997-98 that raised questions about how thoroughly the cap had been
inspected.

Corrosion was found on the metal framework under the nose cap of another
shuttle, a problem that has been inspected or repaired on the orbiters
Discovery and Endeavour, officials said. But Mr. Parsons said the issue
of the Atlantis's nose had not been resolved yet and he did not know if
an extensive inspection that would pull the shuttle from the flight line
would be required.

This raises the possibility that another shuttle might make the first
flight, Mr. Parsons said. "The mission is not orbiter-dependent right
now," he said.