Shuttle launch put back to 22 May

Posted on: Apr. 21st, 2005 || Source: news.bbc.co.uk | E-mail Article | Print Article

Managers of the US space programme (Nasa) have honed in on a new launch date for shuttle Discovery, amidst growing confidence that its spaceships are ready to resume flights after more than two years of work to recover from the Columbia disaster.

Following a top-level meeting to review safety upgrades ordered after the fatal 2003 accident, the shuttle and its seven-member crew were retargeted for launch on 22 May - one week later than previously scheduled.

Although some work remains at the launch pad to prepare Discovery for flight - the payloads have yet to be loaded into the cargo hold and the ship still needs rocket fuels for its onboard steering systems - the postponement is primarily to give managers enough time to scrutinise engineering data on a handful of modifications that have not yet received official sanction.

"I'm very comfortable and very confident in all the changes we made to the vehicle," said shuttle programme manager Bill Parsons told reporters in a teleconference on Wednesday.

"We just weren't ready for a flight-readiness review. It was the amount of open paper."

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