|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
NASA Decides to Forego Extra Inspections on Endeavour
By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral
posted: 04:15 pm ET
05 October 2001
|
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA officials decided Friday to forego any extra inspections on shuttle Endeavour's twin orbital maneuvering engine pods, avoiding a potential delay in its planned late November launch on a space station crew rotation mission. Endeavour and a crew of four astronauts, consequently, remain scheduled for launch Nov. 29 on a flight to ferry the International Space Station's fourth full-time crew to the orbiting outpost. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko and two U.S. astronauts - Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz - will ride up to the station aboard Endeavour and replace the current outpost crew: Frank Culbertson, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin. Senior shuttle program managers had considered delaying the flight after deformed boltholes were discovered on one of 12 attachment points connecting two hump-like orbital maneuvering system pods to sistership Columbia. The find prompted an engineering analysis to determine whether extra inspections should be conducted on the so-called OMS pods on Endeavour, a move that would have delayed its launch until late December or early next year. The analysis, however, showed that deformed boltholes would not cause that particular attachment point - or any others - to fail in flight, or cause structural damage to the pods during a shuttle's eight-and-a-half-minute climb into orbit."Basically, the engineering analysis showed that elongated or deformed boltholes do not compromise the structural integrity of the attach point or the OMS pods," said Kennedy Space Center spokesman Joel Wells. NASA and contractor engineers presented the findings of their analysis to senior shuttle program managers during a meeting Friday. The managers then decided to not to order additional inspections to Endeavour. Culbertson and his crewmates, as a result, remain scheduled to return to Earth Dec. 10. The station skipper and his cosmonaut colleagues have been onboard the outpost since Aug. 10.
|
|
|
|
|
