The Nation - News from July 27, 1988
Top NASA managers met at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to consider use of a small plug shaped like a badminton bird to help seal a fuel leak aboard the shuttle Discovery, being readied for a main engine test firing Sunday. Engineers resumed a dress rehearsal countdown for a launch simulation that officials said was on track for today and Thursday. The simulation involves loading the shuttle’s external tank with half a million gallons of super-cold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fuel. If the fuel leak cannot be fixed at the launch pad, engineers could be forced to haul Discovery back to its hangar for repairs, which would push the launch into October. If the problem can be fixed at the pad, a September blastoff would be possible.
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