NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said Thursday that the space shuttle is ready for a July 13 launch, capping nearly 2 1/2 years of safety modifications undertaken after the Columbia disaster grounded the three remaining orbiters.
The space shuttle Discovery is on launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, undergoing final preparations and loading. Barring last-minute glitches or a midsummer Florida rainstorm, the orbiter should lift off for its 13-day mission at 1:51 p.m. MDT.
Griffin, speaking at a televised Space Center news conference, said the shuttle team had completed “a very thorough and very successful flight readiness review,” the rigorous, two- day checkout leading up to every shuttle flight. “We’re currently go for launch on July 13.”
Shuttle program manager William Parsons said engineers still had several reports and equipment tests to complete, “but it looks like we’ll be able to close it out with no problems.” Finishing the readiness review was a “big step,” he added. “I had a lump in my throat.”
The shuttle fleet has not flown since Feb. 1, 2003, when Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry because a chunk of foam insulation from the external tank punched a hole in the shuttle’s heat shielding during launch.
Delays in the safety modifications prompted three postponements of Discovery’s launch.
