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NASA's Discovery Shuttle Gets Ready for Return to Space

Posted on: Monday, 26 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

Jul. 25--CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. -- With gathering momentum, NASA's Discovery shuttle is coming together like the restoration of a treasured old car.

The 20-year-old spacecraft has been selected to take NASA back into space in March or April for the first time since last year's fatal Columbia accident.

It's a familiar role. Discovery was the first to launch after the 1986 Challenger accident that also claimed seven lives and that grounded the space agency for 32 months.

"That has been a spark for us," said NASA's Stephanie Stilson, the Discovery vehicle manager. "The technical team working on Discovery has a lot of pride."

Friday, Stilson strolled beneath the well-traveled spacecraft in its hangar at Kennedy Space Center, pointing here and there at the changes Discovery is undergoing to make it safer.

Positioned atop massive jacks and blanketed by scaffolding, the shuttle is almost unrecognizable. More than 100 engineers and technicians come and go, working at a deliberate but measured pace, doing their part to build on Discovery's legacy.

The spacecraft has flown an impressive 30 times, most recently almost three years ago.

When Columbia shattered during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003, Discovery was undergoing a major overhaul, a stroke of luck that positioned it for its new mission.

"We've had the orbiter torn apart for structural inspections, wire inspections, and we've put it back together," Stilson said. "Now we have to power the systems up and make sure they are working properly. So there is a lot of work ahead of us."

As intent as Stilson's team is on its task, Discovery's fate rests with the legions of engineers elsewhere at NASA who are attempting to meet a long list of safety improvements set forth by the investigators of the Columbia accident.

Most of the changes are intended to prevent a repeat of the debris strike that damaged the vulnerable leading edge of Columbia's left wing. Others are intended to make it possible for the astronauts to repair damage.

Discovery will become the first of NASA's three remaining shuttles to be equipped with internal wing sensors and cameras designed to detect debris strikes during the climb to orbit and relay the information back to Mission Control.

The large U-shaped carbon composite panels that line the leading edge of each of Discovery's wings have been removed and examined. Using X-rays, ultrasound and other techniques, engineers have assured themselves there are no unseen structural weaknesses that could facilitate damage from a blow.

NASA's Return to Flight Task Force has determined that shuttle engineers have satisfied five of the 15 criteria established by the Columbia Accident Review Board as requirements to resume launchings.

Remaining is the development of a long camera-tipped inspection boom.

DISCOVERY'S LEGACY

--Aug. 30, 1984: Discovery becomes the third space shuttle to lift off.

--Sept. 29, 1988: Discovery lifts off on the first mission after the 1986 Challenger accident.

--April 24, 1990: Discovery launches the Hubble Space Telescope.

--Feb. 11, 1995: Discovery accomplishes the first U.S. rendezvous with Russia's Mir space station.

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