The Nation - News from Aug. 6, 1989

Officials at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were confident as a veiled countdown began for launching the shuttle Columbia on Tuesday with five military astronauts and a secret spy satellite. It will be the first flight in 3 1/2 years for Columbia, the oldest shuttle, which required more extensive overhaul than its two sister ships after the 1986 Challenger explosion. NASA gave the go-ahead to start the countdown even though workers were several hours behind schedule in completing routine work on the spaceship’s engine compartment. Officials said later that the launch team was optimistic that all lagging work would be caught up by today and that liftoff would occur as planned, between 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. The five astronauts have arrived at the Kennedy center from their training base in Houston to make final preparations for the launching.