Avi Blizovsky
Astronauts Charlie Camarda (left) and Steve Robinson (right) are pictured with Mission Commander Eileen Collins at the Shuttle Landing Facility on Sunday after training in the shuttle simulator. Photo: NASA
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/discovery250705.html
NASA said Sunday that the countdown to the first space shuttle since the Columbia disaster is continuing without interruption for Tuesday's launch.
11 days after the flight controllers stopped the launch of the shuttle Discovery, NASA's test manager, Jeff Spaulding, said that "there are no significant problems" that the technicians are aware of that could delay the launch, on Tuesday at 10:39 a.m. EST. Monday, 17:39 Israel time.
"The systems on the shuttle and on the ground continue to function well..." Spaulding said.
On July 13, a pre-launch test showed that one of the four liquid hydrogen sensors was not working as required. A test command was sent to the sensor which was supposed to cause the fuel gauge to change from full to empty but the reading did not change.
After more than a week of testing, another test manager, Pete Nikolenko, said Saturday that he and others were confident the systems would be working as they should on Tuesday.
Fear of postponement due to the weather
As usual during hurricane season, there is some fear of a launch delay due to weather.
Weather officer Kathy Winters said forecasters expect good conditions at launch, with a 40 percent chance of inclement weather at the Kennedy Space Center.
The science website will update on the home page about the launch. Background material and previous news can be found In the science of returning to space
To the mission page on the NASA website
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~675198~~~188&SiteName=hayadan
