Shuttle Poised for Launching Around Sept. 25

“Pumped up” NASA engineers hope to launch the shuttle Discovery on the first post-Challenger flight around Sept. 25, finally ending a 32-month drought for American manned space flight, pending the expected resolution of two apparently minor problems.

“If everything stays on schedule, we’re into the first part of the week of the 25th (of September) and may move to the latter part of the week,” said Richard Kohrs, a top shuttle manager at the Johnson Space Center.

“But I don’t see anything from a program sense that would stop us from launching that last week.”

Discovery’s five-man, all-veteran crew is to spend about four days in orbit to launch a $100-million NASA communications satellite identical to the one destroyed in the Challenger disaster of Jan. 28, 1986.

‘Can Feel the Excitement’

“You can feel the excitement building around here as we get close to launch,” flight director Larry Bourgeois said. “They’re really pumped up.”

Discovery is poised for blastoff on launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the only unresolved items of any significance involve a tiny hydrogen leak in a fuel line and data indicating sluggish operation of two key valves in the shuttle’s engine compartment.

But valve operation was nonetheless within specification, and even if repairs of some sort are required, no significant delays are envisioned, Kohrs said.