NASA Unveils Changes to Prevent Another Shuttle Disaster

Published: Dec 29, 2004
Source: www.reuters.com



MIAMI (Reuters) - NASA has finished building a redesigned space shuttle fuel tank that was reconfigured to eliminate the debris problem that doomed the shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts, agency officials said on Tuesday.

Project managers called the step a major step in returning the U.S. space program to manned flight after the shuttles were grounded when Columbia broke apart over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003.

The first reconfigured tank is to be shipped by Friday from a NASA facility near New Orleans to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the space agency prepares for shuttle Discovery's launch in May or early June.

"We are very close. We can taste victory here on shipping the tank," said Sandy Coleman, external tank project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

The changes are aimed at preventing chunks of insulating foam from breaking off the tank during launch and damaging the shuttle.continue..