NASA: Risks acceptable for July Discovery launch

Published: Jun 27, 2005
Source: news.xinhuanet.com



BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhuanet) -- The risk posture is acceptable for Discovery to be launched as planned in July, which means the first possible shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

"At the end of the day, the recommendation from the board was the that we were in an acceptable risk posture," said Shuttle Program Manager Bill Parsons on Friday in a post-meeting teleconference with reporters. "They recommended to me ... that we proceed on with the launch. I accepted that recommendation. And that's where we are headed now."

The conclusion came after a day-long meeting at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at which NASA managers and engineers reviewed analysis of the potential damage to shuttle by falling ice from the shuttle's external fuel tank on liftoff.continue..