Final Booster Segment Put in Place for Shuttle Flight

The nation’s push for reentry into the arena of manned exploration of space passed a major milestone here Tuesday when workers mated the final segment to the top of the second of two boosters that will launch the space shuttle Discovery on its seventh trip into space.

Launching director Robert B. Sieck said that a nose cone will be added to the top of each rocket by the end of the week, and all preparations point toward launching of the Discovery around the end of August.

Vital Pre-Launching Step

The stacking of the solid rocket booster segments is crucial to progress in preparing for the launching, Sieck said in an interview. It was the failure of a seam between two segments that led ultimately to the explosion of the Challenger more than two years ago.

The solid rockets must then be mated to the huge external tank that carries the fuel for the shuttle’s main engines, and that probably will be done next week.

The Discovery probably will be moved to launching pad 39-B around the end of the first week of June, Sieck said.

“We feel good about the orbiter,” he added. “We’ve just got to finish up with a lot of close-out work.”

A launching in “late August is possible,” he said, but the specific date changes daily depending on the pace of preparations.

“On our internal schedules, today we show it around the 29th or 30th (of August), but tomorrow it could be a day earlier or a day later,” Sieck said.

No ‘Window’ for Cargo

Unlike many launchings, which must meet the requirements of a narrow “window” to carry out specific missions, Discovery’s cargo permits an unlimited launching opportunity. The shuttle’s main mission, besides simply returning the nation to the space business, will be to launch a large tracking and data relay satellite built by TRW Space Systems of Redondo Beach, Calif. That satellite can be launched from the shuttle at any time, thus eliminating any need to meet a specific schedule mandated by the cargo.

All crew members on the flight will be male and all have flown on previous shuttles. The flight will be only four days long and will be under the command of Navy Capt. Frederick H. Hauck. Other crewmen are Air Force Col. Richard O. Covey, the pilot, and mission specialists John M. Lounge, George D. Nelson and David C. Hilmers.

The Discovery will land at Edwards Air Force Base in California.