Near-Forgotten Shuttle Columbia Set to Fly Next Week

Space shuttle Columbia spent much of the past 3 1/2 years as a “hangar queen,” stripped of spare parts like an old car, but it’s ready to fly again on a mission set to begin next week.

The countdown was scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. today, with liftoff between 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. The Defense Department will not be more specific, citing national security but not making it entirely clear why the secrecy is needed.

Columbia, the oldest space shuttle, last was launched on Jan. 12, 1986, its seventh flight. It returned to Earth on Jan. 18. Ten days later its sister ship Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing its crew of seven and grounding the remaining three shuttles.

The post-accident investigation dictated more than 200 changes on each shuttle to improve safety and performance.

With a shortage of manpower and new parts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided that Discovery and Atlantis, newer than Columbia and more easily refitted, would have priority in the overhaul.

For most of the time since then, Columbia languished in a hangar, with no engines, most of its protective skin torn away, no workers scrambling around on scaffolds. The once-proud spacecraft became a source of spare parts so Discovery and Atlantis could fly.

Workers once hung a “hangar queen” sign on Columbia because it never left its air-conditioned home.

Because of its age--it first flew in 1981--Columbia also would require the replacement of more than 3,000 of its heat protection tiles and the replacement of more than five miles of wiring.

Thirty-two months after the Challenger accident, on Sept. 29, 1988, American astronauts returned to space aboard Discovery. Atlantis followed in December, Discovery flew again in March and Atlantis again in May.

Workers began in earnest last November to put Columbia back together, under the direction of Ann Montgomery, the first woman to manage the processing of a shuttle for launch.

NASA several months ago set July 31 as Columbia’s launch date. Launch director Bob Sieck said he’s pleased the agency is missing it by only a few days, considering all that had to be done. “It will be a tremendous relief to get this one done,” he said.

Once in orbit, Columbia’s all-military crew reportedly will release a 10-ton reconnaissance satellite with high-resolution cameras, along with a much smaller scientific payload.

This will be the fourth of 30 shuttle flights dedicated fully to the Defense Department. As on the earlier ones, the Pentagon is mum about most details, including the length of the flight--expected to be about four days.