CAPE CANAVERAL - Kennedy Space Center is preparing to receive a shuttle fuel tank and get it ready for a May
launch. The tank is expected to ship out of New Orleans this morning.
Officials originally said
the tank would ship Friday from the Michoud Assembly Facility, but work was
done on the tank Thursday night, and the insulating foam had to cure for
several hours.
Friday, the tank was
rolling out of its processing facility to be loaded on the barge. It should
arrive at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday or Thursday.
This tank is shipping without
some stretches of foam that flew on earlier tanks. That foam was used to
protect cables running up the tank.
The foam on this tank was
removed as a safety precaution after a piece of it fell
off during Discovery's launch last summer, raising fears of a Columbia-type
accident.
Managers plan wind tunnel
tests and more analysis to prove the modification is safe before final approval
for a May launch can be given.
"We're not going to do
anything that will prevent any additional work in that area," NASA
spokesman Bruce Buckingham said at Kennedy Space Center. "It's possible
the tank will be ready to fly as-is, depending on what the program decides."
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