Problems Persist, but NASA Says the Discovery Can Launch as Scheduled

Posted on: Apr. 25th, 2006 || Source: nytimes.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

WASHINGTON, April 24 -- A string of distracting accidents, safety incidents and tough technical questions have complicated NASA's efforts to get the space shuttle program back on track.

The shuttle Discovery is to fly again in July, in only the second mission since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. But there are continuing questions about fuel-tank foam, which doomed the Columbia and bedeviled the Discovery's return-to-flight mission last year, and about other parts on the aging shuttle fleet.

And this winter, there were so many accidents — a robot arm damaged by a moving work platform, a dropped film canister that damaged heat tiles on the shuttle Endeavour, a small fire in the assembly building — that last month the director of the Kennedy Space Center stopped all work for two hours and lectured employees on safety.

Read the full article

• Boeing's C-130 AMP Flight Marks Completion of Software Development
• Navy UCAS Demonstrator On Track for First Flight
• Lockheed Demonstrates Intelligent Autonomous Control of Multiple UAVs
• Russian Navy aircraft test new equipment over the Arctic
• Russia may push forward with S-300 sales to Iran
• Boeing, US Navy Offer Super Hornet for Denmark Fighter Competition
• Boeing Awarded US Army Contract for 191 CH-47F Chinook Helicopters
• The Netherlands shows interest in Gripen
• 4th F-35 Lightning II Rolls Out As Production Line Fills Up At Lockheed
• Lockheed Martin C-5m Super Galaxy Completes Flight Test
• Air Guard Predator pilots increase combat air patrols
• Predator passes 400,000 hours
• Future Predator/Reaper Formal Training Unit announced
• Saab/Gripen team completes Hungarian offset contract
• South African Gripen deliveries on track