Avi Blizovsky
Mission symbol 107, note the Israeli flag
https://www.hayadan.org.il/terrorshuttle.html
NASA technicians have not found any more cracks like the one discovered in a part of the shuttle Discovery last week, but the tests are continuing.
The crack was in a metal ball the size of a plum located in the part that supports the liquid oxygen line. No such cracks were discovered in the corresponding parts of Atlantis and in the meantime they are waiting for the completion of the test on the Endeavor shuttle. Discovery is undergoing a general overhaul at the Kennedy Space Center. The cracks were discovered during a routine inspection. "We have no plan to inspect Columbia at this time," said NASA officials. Columbia is on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, awaiting launch scheduled for January 16.
Spare parts are being tested this week at high temperatures to see if such cracks will occur in them as well, to give NASA a point of direction to the source of the fault.
Cracks were discovered in Discovery and it will be necessary to check all ferries * fear of another postponement to Ramon
15/12/2002
NASA recently began an investigation to try to determine if the cracks discovered this week in the space shuttle Discovery are a problem for all shuttles.
The problem has the potential to ground the next flight: Columbia's scheduled for January 16. During a routine inspection conducted on Monday this week, engineers discovered cracks in the coating of a metal ball inside a pipe that supplies ultra-cold liquid oxygen to the main engine.
The ball is part of the structure that supports the outside of the tube when it bends during launch. Engineers fear that fragments from the ball could break off and travel down into one of the shuttle's three main engines and cause an explosion there. NASA appointed a team to investigate the problem in depth.
In addition to Discovery, NASA will check whether Atlantis and Endeavor have similar cracks. Columbia is already on the launch pad for the planned January launch, which makes the inspection difficult. The best way to locate the fault is to take out the engines, shuttle managers said.
Discovery is the ferry that made the largest number of flights - over thirty. The damaged balls are an original part on the 19 year old shuttle. Last summer, cracks discovered in another part of the fuel system in the ferries grounded the entire fleet of ferries for several months.
The first Israeli astronaut will fly on the Colobemia flight in January. Preparations for the launch continue as shuttle managers try to assess whether the problem will cause a delay.
For news on CNN
Colombia was transferred therefore the launch in the shadow of fears of an attack in Ilan Ramon
11/12/2000
NASA has moved the space shuttle Columbia from its hangar, therefore the launch in about a month's time for the launch of the shuttle under particularly tight security due to the participation of the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.
Traveling slowly at a speed of about 5 km/h in the Florida rain, the shuttle was being driven when a US Air Force helicopter fired from above.
The security arrangements at the Kennedy Space Center have been getting tighter since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. However, they are supposed to reach an all-time high on January 16 due to the participation of the Israeli Air Force pilot.
Columbia's 16-day scientific mission was planned for July 2002, after over a year of delay, but the shuttle grounded due to cracks in the fuel supply lines in all the shuttles, and after two higher priority missions - serving the International Space Station and bypassing the Columbia flight.
Endeavour's return from Hal International at the weekend cleared the way to Colombia. Its mission will be one of the rare ones not related to the International Space Station.
Besides Ramon, six more astronauts will participate in the flight, one of them is a woman born in India. They will run an Israeli experiment in flight designed to study the dust and other components in the atmosphere and see how they affect the fall of rain and temperature. Ramon has been training at NASA since 1998 as a representative of the Israeli Space Agency.
USA: Alerts of an attack on the site from which the Israeli astronaut will take off
5/12/2002
The security authorities of the United States ordered severe security arrangements at the launch site "Kif Canberal" in Florida, in light of many warnings received about the possibility of an attack there.
Next month, a shuttle is scheduled to take off from there into space with Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon on board. Channel 2 news reported that the Ministry of Culture, Science and Sports received a notification about this.
This is not the first time that Ramon is sought to be harmed. On 20/5/2002 such threats were heard in preparation for the flight which was then planned for July 19, 2002. Ramon said similar things in an interview with the editor of the Hidan website, Avi Blizovsky, in preparation for the film "Mission 107" that will be broadcast on the eve of his flight.
Here is the excerpt from May of this year
"The first Israeli astronaut feels safe with all of NASA's security arrangements and does not consider himself a target of a terrorist attack or even an additional risk to his space shuttle flight. In one of the first interviews he agreed to give since the beginning of the crisis in the Middle East, Major General Ilan Ramon says that NASA is doing everything to protect
on him and the six American crew members of the shuttle.
"I feel safe, there is no risk here. Being an active pilot in the Air Force is a higher risk."
According to Ramon, the training for the 16-day scientific mission aboard the Columbia ferry was not interrupted due to the security measures. "Life goes on as usual and it's important that it continues in the most reasonable way, otherwise the bad guys might win," Ramon told the news agencies.
NASA has increased security at Johnson Training Base in Boston and the launch center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to an unprecedented level in the wake of the 11/24 attacks. in the area around the launch pad on the day of the launch.
Additional security measures are planned for Ramon's launch day, currently scheduled for July 19. Privately everyone is afraid, but officially there is overwhelming support for Ramon's preparations for the flight which was planned long before the crisis in Israel.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keeffe said that he was acting in accordance with the instructions of the Secretary of State's office "Given the latest developments in the Middle East, this is all we can respond to."
Ramon says that no one at NASA asked him to give up the mission and he didn't even think about it himself. He says that his presence does not put his crew members or the shuttle Columbia at additional risk. Our flight is no different from any other flight. saying.
On the day of the flight, he promises that he will not think about the terrorist risk but only that the shuttle will leave on time and without any problems and that he will have a good time in space and will also perform his scientific tasks to the best of his ability.
Yadan Israel in Space, which includes coverage of the flight of the first Israeli astronaut
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~390269863~~~86&SiteName=hayadan
