Avi Blizovsky
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2/8/05 – time 06:30
A possible repair of the filler material protruding from the heat protection system in the belly of the shuttle Discovery was added to the third planned launch.
"We carefully and at length examined the issue of the filler material," said mission manager Wayne Hale tonight. "At the end of the day, there's a lot of uncertainty as to what's going on there."
Using imaging data collected, NASA personnel found two clumps of material from this suspension stuck to the lower part of the shuttle's nose. The ceramic coated fabric is used to close the gaps between the heat protection tiles.
Due to the fact that there is some danger here, although its severity is not clear, the mission managers decided to add a repair mission to the last planned spacewalk in which the practice of removing or adding filler material, which the astronauts trained on during the first spacewalk on Saturday, would be carried out, but then they did it on a dummy surface and not on the real tiles.
The astronauts assembled an external storage facility. The space * Awaiting a decision regarding the repair of the bulge
1/8/05 שעה 23:00
The pair of astronauts Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson completed their second spacewalk on Sunday at 16:56 Israel time. They replaced the torque-controlled gyroscope with the International Space Station's Z1 beam. This is one of four gyroscopes that provide cruise altitude control for the station.
Since they finished their mission ahead of time, they also performed work that would make it easier for them on future spacewalks.
The two will spend time outside the space shuttle Discovery's airlock one more time on Wednesday. Their main task will be to install an external storage platform on the space station.
In the meantime, the other members of the Discovery and members of the station crew spent their time transferring cargo.
As you may recall, on Monday morning, NASA announced that it is considering sending an astronaut out to the lower part of the space shuttle to sand two areas where the filler material between the tiles sticks out. This is so that the aerodynamics of the shuttle will not be damaged when returning to Earth. This is a material made of ceramic texture.
In CNN it was written that the decision should be made during the evening (Monday, for us Tuesday early in the morning). Updates - on Tuesday morning.
Fear of layoffs at the Lockheed Martin plant that produced the foam that insulates the external fuel tank
The grounding of shuttles decided by NASA following problems discovered in the insulation foam raised fears of layoffs at the Louisiana plant where the foam is manufactured and installed.
The plant in New Orleans employs 2,000 workers and many of them at high salaries in a city desperate for employment.
"It depresses us a lot. We are worried about our jobs, our ability to live." said Mike Berger, a foam manufacturing process supervisor who has worked at the Michoud assembly facility since 1980.
Workers resumed work as usual on Thursday, days after the launch, when the faults were also discovered, said Marion Lanassa, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, the main contractor at this plant. Lanassa refused to directly address the threat of layoffs hanging over Michaud employees.
"We did not harm the current production in any case. We have a lot of work to do, but we must focus on solving the problem."
The suspension of flights after the Challenger disaster in 1986 caused hundreds of Michigan workers to be laid off, and 65 were laid off after the Columbia disaster.
Devin Payne, a welder, said he was fired and only returned more than seven years after the Challenger disaster, and he hopes he can continue working for a few more years, long enough to retire at age 55 with his health insurance covered by Lockheed. "I'm very worried." Payne said. "If they ground the ferry program, we will lose many people because of it."
Other workers said they were not worried because they were confident the engineers would be able to fix the problem.
NASA officials said they were confident that the foam that fell from Discovery after launch did not harm the shuttle, but the incident is reminiscent of the block that crashed into Columbia's left wing during launch in 2003 and ultimately caused the disaster.
The researchers claimed that the determination of NASA personnel made them believe that a foam impact on the shuttle did not cause damage, but the disaster led to a careful examination of the manufacturing practices and the manufacturing process at Michaud was changed in order to improve safety.
Workers now have new ways to stick the insulating foam, in a way that will reduce the ice that forms on the fuel tank due to the very cold fuel inside it when preparing the shuttle for flight, and added heaters as well.
Yadan back to space - all the news from the Discovery operation with the exception of the news from today and yesterday
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