Once-Aborted Shuttle Launch Set for Monday

Seven astronauts made final preparations Saturday as the countdown began for the once-aborted launch of the space shuttle Columbia, which will be on its first flight in more than two years.

Columbia, flagship of the shuttle fleet, is to blast off at 4:05 a.m. PST Monday with a crew that includes a Florida congressman and the first Latino U.S. astronaut.

Mission commander Robert L. Gibson and his crew boarded the spaceship Dec. 19 and were just 14 seconds from launch when a computer stopped the countdown because it detected what appeared to be a turbine spinning too fast in a steering system for one of the solid fuel booster rockets.

The problem was traced to an oversensitive electronic part that gave a false reading. It has been replaced.

“We’re looking forward to being the first flight of 1986 instead of the last flight of 1985, and we’re ready to go,” Gibson told reporters.

Gibson and pilot Charles F. Bolden sharpened their flying skills in T-38 jet planes Saturday and then joined the others for an extensive review of their crowded flight plan.

Rep. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) will be aboard Columbia, as will Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, a Costa Rican-born physicist who is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

During five days in orbit, the shuttle crew will deploy an RCA communications satellite, photograph Halley’s comet and other celestial bodies and conduct medical and materials processing experiments.