14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the American space agency are still uncertain whether or not the space shuttle Discovery will be fit to fly by December 17. During a prolonged meeting yesterday, December 2, officials and mission controllers could not come to a decision on whether or not to go through with it.
While December 17 remains the tentatively-scheduled launch date for the STS-133 mission, experts at NASA say that they have yet to decide on a clear, fixed date. The orbiter has been grounded for over a month now, due a many technical issues and glitches.
During investigations, engineers discovered various fuel leaks, electronic glitches, and also several cracks in the shuttle's external fuel tank (EFT). Such damages are tremendously dangerous.
As such, the agency decided to postpone the launch several times over, so as to give repair crews ample time to do their job. But, as some said over these past few weeks, many things need to come together in order for Discovery to launch on December 17.
The very goal of yesterday's meeting was for top shuttle program mangers to determine whether or not the repairs done to the orbiter's EFT were complete and flight-worthy, Space reports.
“They came out of the meeting saying, 'we need to gather more information and we need more analysis'. They're still working on the initial cause. This was a status update meeting rather than decision-making meeting,” says NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.
The sheer number of cracks that were found in the tank makes many engineers wonder as to the cause underlying their formation. Until that is understood, using the EFT for propelling the shuttle is a major no-no.
Discovery is currently attached on the Launch Pad 39A at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was rolled out to the pad back in October, ahead of its final launch.
“We really don't have a new target launch yet – we have not had one since Nov. 5. Here at Kennedy, we're doing things to maintain Discovery's launch readiness to support a Dec. 17 liftoff, but that's really just the first available launch opportunity,” Beutel explains further.
When the new launch window opens, it will only remain opened for four days between December 17-20. During it, NASA will only be able to put together three launch attempts. If none of them is successful, the orbiter could be launched next year.
The first available window is next February, which is when the shuttle Endeavor was originally planned to launch. It remains to be seen whether or not Discovery will indeed launch this year.
“It's not a clear cut process, but management is making smart decisions. They're not being pressured by the schedule. It's all about when the data supports a launch,” the NASA spokesman concludes.