Next space shuttle launch set for next week

[August 20, 2009]  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA will try to launch Discovery to the international space station next week, less than a month after the last shuttle mission.

Senior officials set Tuesday as the launch date following a two-day flight review that ended Wednesday. Hours later, the seven astronauts flew in from Houston.

Discovery and its crew will haul equipment and supplies to the space station, including a new treadmill named after Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. Earlier this year, the TV comedian tried to get a future space station chamber named after him. NASA chose Tranquility instead -- after the Apollo 11 moon base -- and Colbert had to settle for the treadmill.

Much of the discussion during the review focused on the unusually large amount of foam insulation that came off the fuel tank during last month's launch of Endeavour.

NASA conducted a series of tests on Discovery's fuel tank to make sure the foam was attached securely to its midsection, where it peeled off in strips last month. Another area of concern, where foam wedges cover brackets for pressurization lines, was more complicated to check. Foam came off that area during the last two shuttle launches.

On Wednesday, eight or so engineers proposed further testing and even repairs, which would have bumped Discovery's flight into October. But in the end, managers found Discovery's tank acceptable and decided unanimously to proceed with a Tuesday launch, and no one appealed, said Bill Gerstenmaier, head of space operations.

Even though NASA was perplexed by the amount of foam that broke off Endeavour's tank during liftoff last month -- the shuttle received only minor damage -- it was a small fraction of the size of the slab that tore into Columbia's wing in 2003. Columbia was destroyed during re-entry because of the gash.

"That's how close we're looking. That's how sensitive we are" to foam loss, shuttle program manager John Shannon said. "I feel extremely good about the results of the meeting. I think we have done absolute due diligence on the foam piece of it."

The only outstanding problem -- which will be addressed during one final review on Sunday -- is a failed power controller in Discovery that had to be replaced over the weekend.

Another pop culture tidbit about Discovery's 13-day mission: a Buzz Lightyear toy that flew to the space station in spring 2008 will be returning aboard the shuttle. Walt Disney World helped arrange the trip "to infinity and beyond" for the 12-inch action figure, as part of NASA's toys-in-space educational program.

Liftoff time will be 1:36 a.m. Tuesday.

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On the Net:

NASA:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/
shuttle/main/index.html

[Associated Press; By MARCIA DUNN]

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