Next Space Shuttle Run to Be Test Flight

NASA said Monday that when shuttle launches resume sometime next year, the first mission will be a test flight reminiscent of the early days of the space program, with astronauts inspecting their ship and practicing repair techniques to guard against another Columbia-type disaster.

The space agency considered flying a minimum number of astronauts and keeping the mission as short as possible. But NASA decided to go with a full complement of six or seven astronauts on a mission of about a week and a half in order to accomplish some overdue repair work at the international space station.

“If we’re going to go through all this risk to get there and do that, we ought to go ahead and make sure that we do some of those things that are important to the international space station because if we don’t do those things, it raises the risk of the station,” said Bill Parsons, the new shuttle program manager.

With no firm launch date yet, NASA has yet to settle on all the details of an emergency rescue plan.

But in a long return-to-flight document issued Monday, the space agency said it is looking at using the space station as an emergency shelter for stranded shuttle astronauts and considering having another spacecraft ready to blast off on a rescue mission.

“Our first line of defense is: Don’t have any debris come off and strike the shuttle. The second line is to have inspection techniques and repair capabilities so we can come home safely,” Parsons said.

The release of NASA’s initial return-to-flight plan comes two weeks after the Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded that a stray piece of insulating foam and a broken safety culture were responsible for the shuttle’s destruction on Feb. 1. All seven astronauts were killed.

William Readdy, a former shuttle commander who is NASA’s top spaceflight official, stressed that the plan is “a living document” that will evolve in coming the weeks and months.

He and other space agency leaders will meet this week in Houston with members of an independent task force put in place to make sure that NASA fulfills all of the investigation board’s recommendations.

Some NASA officials have talked about resuming shuttle flights as early as March, but most of them have said privately that next summer would be a more realistic estimate.

The biggest challenge, NASA officials said, will be to come up with a repair for the vulnerable carbon panels that protect the leading edges of the shuttle wings. The leading edge of Columbia’s left wing suffered a 6- to 10-inch hole from the foam impact.

The NASA officials said they do not know yet how much all the extra work and improvements will cost.

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