By Todd Halvorson, Florida Today http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2006-07-11-shuttle-recovery_x.htm ?POE=TECISVA
CAPE CANAVERAL - Discovery's spacewalkers will test heat shield repair techniques Wednesday, and the astronauts say NASA finally has recovered from the 2003 Columbia accident. "I think my brother put it very well," shuttle pilot Mark Kelly said after speaking to his twin sibling, Scott, who also is an astronaut, on an Internet phone. "He said, 'We're back, baby!' " Midway through NASA's second post-Columbia test flight, the astronauts said Discovery's trouble-free launch and the lack of heat shield damage puts the agency in position to resume construction of the half-built International Space Station. "I think we were all hoping for two things to come out of (the mission)," said Discovery astronaut Piers Sellers. "The first thing is that the shuttle would fly with no problems, no big dings on ascent, and we'd have a clean vehicle. And we seem to have achieved that," the British-born scientist said. '"The second thing is that we would leave the station in good shape and ready to pick up the assembly sequence. The line would be drawn where it was rubbed out before Columbia. We would start again with the next mission and continue assembly," he said. "I think we're there now." The U.S. and 15 international partners intend to restart station construction during a shuttle mission set for launch in late August. Fourteen flights after that are required to finish the outpost. The prime goal of Discovery's mission was to test safety changes to the shuttle's external tank. Columbia was downed after a 1.67-pound chunk of foam insulation broke free from its tank, drilling a six-to 10-inch hole in the shuttle's left wing. Hot gasses blowtorched through the wing during atmospheric re-entry, destroying the shuttle and killing seven astronauts. Safety changes since prevented all but several small pieces of foam from coming off Discovery's tank. No damage was done to its thermal armor, and the astronauts say they'll feel safe when the shuttle returns to Earth next Monday. On Wednesday, Sellers and spacewalking partner Mike Fossum will test heat shield repair materials and techniques. The two will use black goo to repair deliberately damaged wing panel samples stowed in the shuttle's cargo bay. Sellers likened the test to "a careful, meticulous lab experiment." "It really is lab work and we're going to do the best, most careful job we can," he added. The consistency of peanut butter, the adhesive repair material is designed to ward off the extreme temperatures - up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit - that shuttle wing panels are exposed to during an hourlong free-fall back to Earth. It's specifically made to fix small cracks. The repaired samples will be brought back to Earth and tested in an arc jet facility here at NASA's Johnson Space Center - a test lab where engineers can mimic the conditions the shuttle orbiter encounters during searing plunges through the atmosphere. The spacewalk is the last of three outside excursions planned during Discovery's stay at the international outpost. The shuttle and its astronauts are scheduled to depart the station on Saturday. They're due back at Kennedy Space Center Monday. Gregory S. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
