NASA's
first space shuttle to fly since the Columbia disaster will launch as planned
on July 13, shuttle officials said Thursday.
After more than two years of training and re-training, the seven astronauts of NASA's STS-114 mission are now set to ride the space shuttle Discovery spaceward at 3:51 p.m. EDT (1951 GMT) as soon as their 19-day launch window opens.
"We are
currently go for launch on July 13," said NASA chief Michael Griffin during a press
conference at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Griffin and
other shuttle program and launch managers announced the decision after a
two-day flight readiness review.
"It's just
an outstanding day to be this close to get the shuttle flying again," said NASA
launch director Michael Leinbach told reporters. "It's a great, great feeling."
NASA's
three remaining space shuttles have been grounded since Feb. 1, 2003, when the
Columbia orbiter broke apart as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere, killing
its seven-astronaut crew. The orbiter's heat-resistant skin was damaged at liftoff
by a chunk of external tank insulation foam, which punctured its left wing
leading edge and allowed hot atmospheric gases to enter during reentry,
investigators later found.
Earlier
this week, an independent task group found that NASA was unable to meet three
of the 15 recommendations Columbia investigators believed should be addressed
before the agency launched its next shuttle flight. The task group said NASA is
still unable to completely prevent orbiter damage from ice or foam debris at
launch, and that its on-orbit shuttle repair techniques were still too nascent
to be considered reliable.
Griffin and
other NASA shuttle officials said the space agency has managed to lower those
risks for Discovery's flight.
Discovery's
STS-114 flight, commanded by veteran astronaut Eileen Collins, will culminate
two and a half years of redesigns and modifications to enhance orbiter and
external tank safety.
"We went
literally from stem to stern on the vehicle...to make sure that we did come back
smarter and surer of a safe result," said Bill Parsons, NASA's shuttle program
manager, during the briefing.
Griffin
said the he spent almost two hours speaking with
Collins and her crew about the launch decision.
"The crew
is go for launch, and they want us to be go for launch," Griffin said. "They
want to return to flight, but they don't want us to rush to flight."
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