Fri, Aug 06, 2004
Playing It Safe For The Return To Flight
NASA is most assuredly playing it safe when the space shuttles
return to flight next year. In both of the first two launches, the
space agency plans to have a back-up shuttle on the pad, ready to
go in case of emergency.
"After that, we will take a look and evaluate. .. and see where
we need to go from there," said John Casper, a former astronaut now
leading NASA's effort to implement recommendations made by the
Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He was quoted in the
newspaper Florida Today.
Discovery is the first shuttle set to launch next Spring. If
something goes terribly wrong with that flight, its crew will
divert to the International Space Station. If that happens, the
shuttle Atlantis will be ready to launch on a rescue mission within
45 days. If, during the second shuttle mission following the
February, 2002 Columbia disaster, there is a life-threatening
problem, a rescue mission could be mounted to the ISS within 58
days.
In both cases, the time lag
represents what NASA believes to be the limit of food and water
aboard the ISS.
"We need to understand the fixes that we've done we need to
understand how well the systems work," shuttle program manager Bill
Parsons was quoted by the paper as saying.
Florida Today also reports the initial requirement to launch
shuttles only in daylight could also go away after the first two
successful missions. By eliminating both requirements as set forth
by the CAIB, NASA will have made great strides in meeting President
Bush's vision for the Moon, Mars and Beyond. That vision requires
the ISS be completed and the shuttles retired by 2010. To do that,
the shuttles will have to fly up to six times a year.
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