The Nation - News from April 5, 1988

NASA engineers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida removed the first of three engine pumps from the shuttle Discovery for unscheduled inspections expected to delay the ship’s trip to the launch pad for the first post-Challenger mission. While Aug. 4 remains NASA’s official target date for the next shuttle launch, the unexpected inspections of high pressure liquid oxygen pumps will use up the one week of contingency time built into the launch processing flow. The pumps are being removed so engineers can inspect 10 small screws used to anchor an internal seal. At issue is whether the screws could have become stripped despite a procedure designed to lock them in place.