CAPE CANAVERAL -- Bunny-suited
workers at Kennedy Space Center carefully settled a new inspection boom into
place on the right side of shuttle Discovery's payload bay Monday.
"I was very excited, and so was everybody else,
because it is a major milestone," said United Space Alliance's Mike Olejarski,
who manages the people who installed the boom.
Once the shuttle is in orbit, the robot arm, which is
on the opposite side of the orbiter's payload bay, will maneuver the inspection
boom to look for the kind of damage that led to Columbia's destruction. The arm
and the boom extension were made in Canada.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board deemed the
ability to inspect the orbiter in space essential for the shuttles' return to
flight.
After painstaking preparations Monday, workers
attached the 50-foot-long boom to two hooks dangling from a crane embedded in
the building's ceiling. The hooks slowly lifted the boom over the scaffolding
that surrounds Discovery, then lowered it into place.
Olejarski said workers would close the payload doors
to make sure the boom fits as expected. They would test its electronics.
The move took place in the hangar where workers are
readying Discovery to lead the shuttle fleet back to space in May.
"We're counting down the days," Olejarski
said.
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