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NASA " We're going to do it right" |
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NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said Friday, the earliest launch for the shuttle Discovery would be the afternoon of July 13. NASA decided to delay the launch of the first shuttle flight since Columbia broke up over the Southwest, citing the buildup of ice on the external fuel tanks and other problems observed during a recent fueling test.
Two of the key problems that must be solved before Discovery can be launched involve hydrogen sensors in the external fuel tank and persistent ice buildup on external fuel lines on the tank. Reviews of the hazards from the debris of launching indicated that ice buildups that shook free in flight posed more of a potential hazard than previously believed, the officials said.
"The testing on the ice lagged behind the testing on foam, but was clearly put in place," deputy program manager, N. Wayne Hale Jr said. "But we have plans on how to deal with it now that we know that we have to do something about it."
The new NASA administrator, Dr. Michael D. Griffin, told a news conference that NASA was not going to rush to fly just to meet a schedule.
"This is consistent with our overall approach to return to flight, which is that we're going to return to flight, we're not going to rush to flight. We want it to be right. So we're doing what we need to do to ensure that," Griffin said
The delay is another setback for an agency that is trying to keep its aging fleet together and to return to flight two years after its second fatal shuttle disaster reports New York Times
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