国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

   

WORLD / America

Shuttle launch a 'go' despite problem
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-04 14:37

NASA signed off Monday night on a Fourth of July shuttle liftoff despite worries about a piece of foam that popped off Discovery's external fuel tank while the spacecraft sat on the launch pad.

"We're going to continue with the launch countdown," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator, at a nighttime briefing.

A graphic from NASA shows the external fuel tank, close-up of the lock speedline bracket showing an area of missing foam and a photo of the missing chunk of foam from space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank in Cape Canaveral July 3, 2006.
A graphic from NASA shows the external fuel tank, close-up of the lock speedline bracket showing an area of missing foam and a photo of the missing chunk of foam from space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank in Cape Canaveral July 3, 2006. [Reuters]

The decision for the 2:38 p.m. EDT Tuesday liftoff was sure to stir more debate about whether the space agency was putting its flight schedule ahead of safety even though Gerstenmaier said "there were no dissenters ... no concerns raised" at a meeting of managers.

He said the astronauts and NASA administrator Michael Griffin were in on the discussion. Griffin "didn't raise any question or comments but he listened intently," Gerstenmaier said.

The 3-inch triangular piece of foam that appeared to come from a 5-inch-long crack late Sunday or early Monday is far smaller than the foam chunk that brought down Columbia, killing seven astronauts in 2003. Gerstenmaier showed reporters the piece of foam, which looked like a wedge of toast.

"I don't think we're taking any additional risk than we did in our original assessment" in going ahead with a launch, he said.

Managers had spent most of Monday pondering the problem. NASA has spent millions of dollars trying to prevent foam from breaking off at liftoff, threatening the kind of damage it did to Columbia. Engineers were startled when it broke off Discovery during last year's mission, but it didn't harm the shuttle.

The loss of foam from that area of the tank while on the launch pad is a rare occurrence, happening only once before, Gerstenmaier said.

Some outside experts familiar with shuttle foam loss problems were concerned about plans to launch Tuesday.

Carnegie Mellon University engineering and risk analysis professor Paul Fischbeck, who had been worried earlier in the day by the falling chunk of foam, said NASA's rationale in going ahead made sense and he is slightly more comfortable with a launch try Tuesday.
Page: 12

 
 

定日县| 宝坻区| 六盘水市| 屯昌县| 衡东县| 巴彦淖尔市| 新丰县| 黑龙江省| 竹北市| 常德市| 忻州市| 西林县| 呼和浩特市| 古浪县| 庆元县| 察雅县| 葫芦岛市| 石阡县| 柳河县| 孝昌县| 湘西| 马鞍山市| 绥德县| 库伦旗| 莱西市| 巴青县| 黔东| 闽清县| 新田县| 波密县| 南涧| 海城市| 峡江县| 十堰市| 垫江县| 拉孜县| 哈巴河县| 安泽县| 金湖县| 义乌市| 泉州市|