NASA Declares Discovery Is ‘Go’ for July Launch

NASA officials Thursday cleared the space shuttle Discovery for launch on July 13, nearly 2 1/2 years after the fiery destruction of Columbia on its reentry in February 2003.

“Based on a very thorough and very successful flight readiness review, we’re currently go for launch,” NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin said after two days of meetings.

The seven-person crew will lift off at 12:51 p.m. PDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a mission to carry 15 tons of supplies to the International Space Station.

Some concerns remain about Discovery’s safety. An independent panel reviewing NASA’s safety improvements -- the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group -- on Monday expressed concerns about hazards from debris during launch and the shuttle crew’s inability to make repairs in orbit.

But members of the task group added that they believed NASA had done everything possible to improve flight safety and that they saw no reason to delay the launch.

And retired Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., who led the investigation into the Columbia catastrophe, said Wednesday he was satisfied that NASA officials had taken all the steps necessary to launch Discovery safely.

NASA officials, disappointed when Discovery’s original May launch was delayed for safety reasons, were delighted at the clearance.

“It’s a great, great feeling to be less than two weeks from launch,” launch director Mike Leinbach said.

Griffin said that he had met with Discovery commander Eileen Collins and her crew after the review, and that they were pleased with the outcome.

“The crew is go for launch,” Griffin said. “They want us to be go for launch. They don’t want to rush to flight, but they are ready to return to flight.”

Columbia was doomed when a suitcase-sized chunk of insulating foam broke off from the external fuel tank during launch and damaged the leading edge of the craft’s wing. During reentry, the damaged area allowed the penetration of superheated gases that caused the orbiter to disintegrate over Texas, killing all seven aboard.

The shuttle fleet has been grounded since the disaster. As a result, the crew of the space station dropped from three people to two, the station’s expansion was halted and re-supplying has been performed by Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Even so, food supplies on the orbiting station have run perilously low at least once.

During the Columbia investigation, Gehman’s team found 15 separate areas where safety needed to be improved.

In its final report Monday, the Stafford-Covey group said NASA had fulfilled all recommendations in 12 of the areas, but only partially accomplished the task in three of the most crucial ones.

The incomplete areas included preventing foam and ice from falling off the external fuel tank, hardening the orbiter in case some debris does strike it, and developing the capability to repair damage in orbit.

But panelist Joseph W. Cuzzupoli of Kistler Aerospace Corp. said engineers had done just about all they could on the ground, particularly with the repair kits. Further improvements now, he said, “depend on flying to find out what you don’t know.”

Engineers have done everything they can to minimize the dangers for Discovery, Griffin said, “but we should never lose sight of the fact that spaceflight is risky.”

And just in case something does happen, the shuttle Atlantis is fully prepped and ready to go if a rescue mission becomes necessary, program manager Bill Parsons added.

One potential concern is the weather. July afternoons at the Kennedy Space Center are frequently characterized by thunderstorms like the one that raged outside the briefing Thursday. A storm on the launch date could force a delay. High humidity might lead to an unacceptable buildup of ice on the external fuel tank, also causing postponement.

If delays do occur, the Discovery team has until the end of the month in the current launch window. The next available window is in September.