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NASA Has Plan to Land Space Shuttle With No Crew

Posted on: Monday, 3 July 2006, 06:45 CDT

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- The destruction of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia in 2003 not only spurred NASA to figure out a way to save a stranded space shuttle crew, but also how to get their damaged ship back home.

The key is aboard space shuttle Discovery, which now scheduled for launch at 2:38 p.m. EDT (1838 GMT) on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after two weather-related delays over the weekend.

Among the two tons of cargo the shuttle will be toting to the International Space Station is a set of cables that could be used to hot-wire a shuttle so it can be remotely controlled to leave orbit and land without a crew aboard.

NASA developed the system after the Columbia crew died aboard their damaged ship in February 2003. The shuttle had been struck by falling foam insulation from the ship's fuel tank during liftoff, but NASA did not realize the impact critically damaged the shuttle's heat shield until after the spacecraft broke apart during a landing attempt.

In addition to fixing the fuel tank in an attempt to cut down on falling debris, engineers developed in-flight inspection techniques and outfitted the space station as an orbital haven where a shuttle crew could await rescue if their ship was too damaged to carry them home.

But the U.S. space agency doesn't want to abandon a $2 billion spaceship either. Nor does it want the shuttle to return unguided through Earth's atmosphere and possibly crash down in populated areas.

"The one thing we're not going to do is put a dead orbiter out into space to just fall where it may," said John Shannon, the deputy space shuttle program manager.

The cables aboard Discovery, which will be stowed on the station in case they are ever needed, would enable a shuttle crew to wire the ship's electronic components so ground controllers could handle the tasks normally tackled by astronauts.

Among the systems that would need to be hard-wired are the latches that lock the shuttle to the station; the shuttle's landing gear and the parachute that slows the ship during touchdown.

"It's a number of cables because the functions are quite complicated and they're all buried behind panels and things," said astronaut Andy Thomas, who flew on the shuttle's first post-Columbia mission last year.

The system was under development when Thomas and his crewmates were preparing to fly, but was not completed in time to be carried into space last year.

"I think it's a good idea," Thomas said.

NASA previously developed a system for the shuttle to autonomously collect information needed to approach the runway, but it was never fully tested and expanded to handle landing.

Discovery is set to embark on a make-or-break 12-day mission that will test fuel tank repairs and carry badly needed supplies and equipment to the space station. The astronauts will also make repairs to the station.

Another serious accident would likely ground the shuttle permanently before its scheduled retirement in 2010 and leave the $100 billion space station unfinished.

Source: REUTERS

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