(3 Jul 2006)
Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral, Florida
1. Wide shot of news conference
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) John Shannon, Deputy Manager of the Shuttle Programme:
"What we think happened yesterday is, when we had all of that rain that obviously is what scrubbed the launch, we had some condensation running down the locks feedline itself here and it's very cold and it froze and we got some ice build-up in that articulating joint and when the tank was emptied and it started to warm up, it started to expand and we think some of that ice stayed in that joint and it crushed a little bit of that foam. And what the inspection team reported was a small crack in that joint."
3. Still of foam and crack
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) John Shannon, Deputy Manager of the Shuttle Programme:
"The middle picture, the black circle shows that crack, and that was the initial report that we got and we started working with the team to make sure that we understood the physics, what could have caused that and what it would mean to us."
5. Wide shot of news conference
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mike Leinbach, Shuttle Launch Director:
"We have the best team in the world to put our eyes on the external tank with the specialised equipment that they use to pick up issues like this and we get them periodically and we deal with them one by one so the final inspection team, the ice team, is there for a reason and they executed perfectly yesterday afternoon and we'll do it again tomorrow morning after we fill up the tank for launch. So we are executing per our plan and right now we have a good shot at launch tomorrow if we can clear up this particular issue."
7. Wide shot of news conference
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) John Shannon, Deputy Manager of the Shuttle Programme:
"And the piece that we lost is about what is above my fingers right here. They brought it into the MMT (mission management team) and showed us and a lot of people who had seen the picture, it looked like a very large piece of foam and when you got it it looked like this small piece of bread crust is kind of what it looked like and so the scale is kind of tough to pull off."
9. Wide of press conference
STORYLINE:
NASA managers weren't ruling out a 4 July launch for the space shuttle Discovery on Monday, even after inspectors found a 5-inch-long crack in the foam insulation on its external fuel tank.
Officials said they needed more time to evaluate the problem and planned to meet again on Monday evening to decide whether to go ahead with the launch.
The space agency's engineers believe the crack was caused by the expanding and shrinking of the tank as it was fuelled with super-cold propellant.
They also believe the fuelling caused a 3-inch-long (7.6 centimetre) triangle-shaped piece of foam to fall off the area and land on a platform below.
The chunk of foam was too small to have caused damage if it had fallen during the launch, said John Shannon, deputy manager of the shuttle programme.
NASA technicians planned to continue loading fuel into Discovery's power system.
Concerns about cracks in the fuel tank's foam insulation have dogged the programme since the shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas on February 1, 2003.
NASA tried to fix the problem before attempting another launch, but more foam broke off Discovery's redesigned tank last July, barely missing the shuttle.
Inspectors this time spotted the 5-inch-long (12.7 centimetre) crack in the foam insulation during an overnight check of the shuttle.
NASA had scrubbed launch plans on Saturday and Sunday because of poor weather and had removed fuel from the tank.
Keyword-space
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
