WASHINGTON--NASA says a
September launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis is unlikely now that a week of
intensive trouble shooting failed to identify "any immediate easy fixes" to the
foam shedding problems seen during Discovery's July 26 launch.
About two minutes into
Discovery's July 26 liftoff, a large chunk of insulating foam peeled away from
the shuttle's external fuel tank, missing the orbiter, but setting back NASA's
efforts to resume construction of the International Space Station (ISS).
All told, Discovery's
external tank shed larger than expected pieces of foam from five separate
areas, some of which NASA thought it had managed to fix in the two and a half
years since an errant chunk of foam led to the loss of the Space Shuttle
Columbia during its return to Earth on February 1, 2003.
NASA's three remaining
shuttle orbiters are grounded until the foam problem is resolved.
Bill Gerstenmaier,
the senior NASA official leading the investigation into Discovery's foam loss
incidents, said Thursday that engineers so far have found no solutions to the
problem.
"We didn't find any
immediate easy fixes here," Gerstenmaier said during
a teleconference with reporters. He said least some tank modifications appear
necessary before NASA can fly the shuttle again.
NASA officials had been
holding out hope of resolving the foam issues in time to launch before the end
of September. But Gerstenmaier said that no longer
appears realistic, given that at least some of parts of Atlantis' tank will
require "minor engineering modifications" before the shuttle can be cleared for
flight.
"We will probably not make
the September launch window," he said.
NASA's next opportunity
comes in November. Gerstenmaier said should Atlantis
be ready to fly by then, NASA would remain on track for resuming construction
of the ISS come March.
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