CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) --
NASA engineers are examining seals known as O-rings that go between space
shuttle booster rockets because recent batches have shown a higher-than-usual
amount of unmixed rubber.
The seals are of special
concern to the U.S. space agency since their failure was blamed for the 1986
Challenger disaster that killed six astronauts and teacher-in-space Christa
McAulliffe.
Challenger blew apart 73
seconds after liftoff when seals that had stiffened from cold weather allowed
hot gases to escape the booster and ignite fuel.
Rubber specks that are too
large or too close together can make the seals stiffer.
McAulliffe's
back up for the Challenger flight, Barbara
Morgan, is set to launch on her first spaceflight with six other astronauts
aboard shuttle Endeavour on Aug. 7 for a mission
to the International Space Station.
NASA engineers are checking
to make sure the O-rings in Endeavour's boosters aren't part of the batches
under examination, but they don't expect them to be, NASA spokesman Rob Navias
said Friday. The investigation was first reported by USA Today.
"It's not serious,'' Navias
said. "We fully expect it will have no impact on launch."
"It's a paper chase that we
typically do when another batch of hardware shows an issue that we want to take
a look at a little more carefully ... We don't even know if the O-rings in
question are bad," he said.
NASA managers expect an
update on the O-rings when they meet next week at Kennedy Space Center to give
final approval for the August launch.
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