CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.– As NASA stands
poised to launch its first shuttle mission in more than two years, a mixture of
both excitement and apprehension fill the hearts of some of those watching over
the upcoming space shot.
Weather
permitting, the space shuttle Discovery is set to launch Wednesday afternoon on
a mission to put seven astronauts in orbit and show that NASA has once again
overcome tragedy in pursuit of space exploration. The mission is the first
scheduled shuttle flight since the 2003 accident that resulted in the loss of
the Columbia
orbiter and its entire astronaut crew during STS-107.
“I feel
like it’s time,” Doug Brown, brother of STS-107 mission specialist
David Brown told SPACE.com in a
telephone interview. “It’s a chance to refocus and sort of reaffirm
that we know why and what we’re doing.”
The space
shuttle Columbia
broke apart during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003 after a successful 16-day science
mission. The accident ground NASA’s shuttle program to a halt while
investigators traced its cause, ultimately pinning the incident on foam
insulation debris that struck Columbia’s
left wing and punched hole in the orbiter’s protective, heat-resistant
skin. Over the last two and a half years NASA has strived to reduce the chance
of such an accident occurring again, redesigning shuttle external tanks to
prevent the loss of foam like that which doomed Columbia, as well as potentially harmful ice.
The result
is Discovery’s STS-114 mission, a test flight designed to not only verify
NASA’s external tank modifications, but evaluate a new orbital inspection
boom and other tools tailored for thermal protection system repair. NASA hopes
to launch Discovery on a 12-day flight at about 3:51 p.m. EDT (1951 GMT). The
launch countdown has been ticking away since Sunday, and only the threat of
afternoon thunderstorms cloud the space shot’s prospects, NASA officials
said.
“Flying
in this morning, we saw the vehicle on the pad and it absolutely struck me that
we’re back to spaceflight,” astronaut David Wolf, head of the EVA
branch at NASA’s Astronaut Office, told SPACE.com here Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “There’s
a real excitement here, and of course a mixed tension coming off an accident.”
A veteran
of four shuttle flights and one long-duration stint aboard the Russian space
station Mir, Wolf said that observers on the ground have a harder time at
launch than the astronauts seated inside a shuttle’s crew compartment.
“Somehow,
with your friends in there and people you know, it’s always scarier than
when you’re in it,” he said. “It
always completely captures me to see a shuttle launch.”
Discovery’s
flight is the first of two test missions to evaluate post-Columbia changes in
the shuttle launch system to lower flight risks to what NASA officials have
called an “acceptable” level.
“David
was very big on the [space] program…so it must go on,” Brown said,
adding that his brother, like himself, was aware of the risks of human
spaceflight. “I don’t have a problem in that it’s risky and
we’re going to choose to accept risk. While it’s painful that
it’s my family that’s affected, it’s inherent to the
business.”
Like many
in NASA, the loss of the STS-107 astronauts has not left the mind of Paul Hill,
lead flight director for the STS-114 mission, who has spent the last six days
tying up loose ends at Johnson Space Center
in Houston
where the spaceflight will be coordinated after Discovery reaches orbit.
“There
aren’t many days that I don’t drive into work and not think of the
accident, it’s something that creeps back,” Hill said in a
telephone interview. “But this is a tough job and during the mission we
owe it to Eileen and her crew to have our eye on the ball.
“When
it’s over, when I’m walking out of the control room, I’ll be
thinking about Rick [Husband],” Hill said of Columbia’s last commander.
Hill said
Discovery’s spaceflight, and ultimately the rest of the orbiter missions
set to complete the International Space Station, are pivotal to the future of
NASA’s plans for the human exploration of space.
“We
aren’t here to keep doing roundy-rounds in
Earth orbit,” Hill said. “We are here to push outward. I want,
someday, to know that humanity will leave the solar system, and you don’t
get any closer staying in low Earth orbit.”
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