NASA engineers are guaranteeing that damage to the flame
trench will be fixed before the August rollout of Atlantis for an early October
launch to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
"We'll be fixed and ready to go by that point,"
assistant launch director Ed Mango said.
After Discovery's
May 31 launch, NASA engineers found
that some 5,300 bricks had been blown out of a wall in the flame trench,
traveling as far as 1,800 feet to a perimeter fence and beyond.
Bits of asbestos filler material also were found in the
debris.
Technicians have done tap testing to find loose bricks and
have drilled two-inch test holes into several bricks to determine whether they
will hold during the next launch.
NASA favors fixing the gash with a spray-on heat resistant
material. Replacing the nearly 50-year-old bricks would be difficult.
"They're not readily available," said structural
engineer Perry Becker, who is in charge of NASA's investigation and repair
plan.
Becker said the concrete wall of the flame trench is not
damaged, but it must be protected from the shuttle's 6 million pounds of
thrust.
"The bricks are there to protect the concrete wall
behind them, so if you don't have any bricks, eventually it's going to be
eroding the concrete behind it," he said.
A repair
plan will be presented for approval by the end of the month.
Becker said the three-foot concrete wall behind the bricks
is solid and the Apollo-era launch pad is structurally sound.
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