The Nation - News from April 6, 1988

Additional testing has revealed yet another case of loose, or “unbonded,” insulation in a solid-fuel booster segment scheduled for use in the first post-Challenger flight, officials at Kennedy Space Center in Florida said. But NASA engineers concluded they have a solution to the problem in hand and that an extensive test program will verify the ability of a repair procedure to eliminate the trouble. Meanwhile, the agency is proceeding with repairs and booster assembly on the assumption that the test program will prove the current repair technique is sufficient. So far, four of the eight booster segments that will be used for the shuttle Discovery’s blastoff, scheduled for August, have been inspected for insulation “unbonds.” In all four, small areas of loose insulation have been found near the redesigned O-ring joints.