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Inspections and Repairs Cause Further Shuttle Delays
By Glen Golightly
Houston Bureau Chief
posted: 08:43 am ET
17 September 1999
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shuttle_delay_917HOUSTON Shuttle managers have pushed back the earliest date for the next shuttle mission based on current inspections and repairs of electrical wiring. NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said Thursday that Nov. 19 is the earliest a shuttle will launch from Kennedy Space Center. He said the work stoppage from Hurricane Floyd had no effect on the managers decision. Inspection and repair of the wiring aboard Endeavour and Discovery is taking longer than expected. Previously, the space agency had set tentative dates of Oct. 28 for the launch of Discovery on a Hubble Space Telescope repair mission and Nov. 19 for a radar-mapping mission with Endeavour. Hartsfield added shuttle managers have left open the option of flying the radar-mapping mission before the Hubble repair flight. The shuttle fleet was grounded after an electrical short circuit knocked out two main engine computers during Columbias launch on July 23. The cause of the short was traced to a damaged wire. After another damaged wire was discovered on Columbia, NASA decided to take a closer look at all four spaceships. Hartsfield said electrical wiring used in diverse areas such as the solid rocket boosters, external fuel tank and even space suits has been reviewed with no problems found.
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