The Nation - News from July 20, 1988

A pressure drop detected in January might have alerted engineers to the small leak that threatens a delay in the next space shuttle flight, but there is no conclusive evidence that workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida acted improperly, the launch director said. Bob Sieck said a search of paper work shows that a pressure check was made on the oxidizer tank manifold in an engine compartment before Christmas, and a second reading was taken about two weeks later. “There was a pressure drop of about 16 pounds per square inch between the two data points,” he said. A tiny leak of nitrogen tetroxide gas was detected in an engine compartment of Discovery on Friday.