NASA Shuttle Team Confident in Discovery's July Launch Target

Published: Jun 21, 2005
Source: www.space.com



CAPE CANAVERAL - The team at Kennedy Space Center is confident Discovery and Atlantis will be ready in time to launch the return-to-flight mission in July as planned, NASA officials told community leaders at a breakfast Friday.

"It's been a pretty tough 2 1/2 years," said Michael Wetmore, the Merritt Island man who heads shuttle processing at the space center. "We're now very confident that light at the end of the tunnel is not a train."

Discovery, set to fly the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster, is at the launch pad with five extra days in the schedule between now and the first available launch date, July 13.

Discovery could fly any time between that day and July 31.continue..