SPACE.com -- NASA Mulls Fuel Tank Test for Next Shuttle Flight

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Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, external tank number 119 hangs suspended horizontally in preparations for its fuel sensor swap. Credit: NASA/Cory Huston. Click to enlarge.

External tank workers prepare to pry open a manhole at the bottom of External Tank-119 to swap out a set of engine cut-off sensors with new ones in preparations for NASA's STS-121 shuttle flight. Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann. Click to enlarge.


	NASA Mulls Fuel Tank Test for Next Shuttle Flight By Todd Halvorson FLORIDA TODAY posted: 13 April 2006 11:16 am ET

CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA is mapping out plans to test shuttle Discovery's external tank at its Kennedy Space Center launch pad, but a final decision on whether to proceed with the fuel-loading operation still is pending.

The test would involve pumping more than a half-million gallons of super cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the 15-story tank to test changes made to it, agency officials said Wednesday.

Among other things, the test - which would take place about June 1 - would enable engineers to determine whether four new liquid hydrogen fuel-depletion sensors in the tank are working properly.

Kyle Herring, a spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said engineers have been asked to draw up plans for a test, but managers still have not made a final decision on whether to carry it out.

The fuel-depletion sensors serve the same purpose as automobile fuel gauges and also provide a back-up means of making sure the shuttle's main engines shut down properly.

A malfunction could prompt a premature shutdown, which could lead to an emergency landing attempt, or the engines could continue running until all fuel was exhausted, potentially triggering a catastrophic failure.

One of the four sensors originally installed in Discovery's tank produced unexpected readings during an electrical test in late February. Managers subsequently decided to replace all four, a move that forced NASA to delay its second post-Columbia test flight from May to July.

NASA encountered problems with the same sensors during a fuel-loading test before Discovery's launch last July. The troubles did not recur during a subsequent launch countdown and NASA proceeded with the flight.

KSC spokesman Bruce Buckingham said NASA has enough time in its launch-processing schedule to accommodate a tanking test. Discovery remains scheduled for a May 19 move to its pad and launch still is targeted for July 1.

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