Feb 2 1981
From The Space Library
Insulation that separated from the Space Shuttle's huge external fuel tank would delay the long-awaited launch to a time "no earlier than the week of April 5," NASA announced. Columbia's maiden flight was already more than two years behind its original schedule because of technical probable causing a series of postponents. The new difficulty was discovered in preflight tests at Cape Canaveral in which over a half-million gallons of supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were pumped into the fuel tank for the first time.
The new delay was "the first substantial" problem encountered since July 1980 and was not related to earlier problems with the Shuttle's ceramic-tile insulation. During tanking tests, two areas on the external tank-one about 7x8 feet, the other about 4x4 feet-became debonded. The loose insulation would have to be rebonded before launch. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Jan 28/81; NASA Releases 81-15, 81-25; W Post, Feb 3/81, A-7; W Star, Feb 3/81, A-8)
The European Space Agency (ESA) reported on the May 23, 1980, failure of Ariane flight L02. The cause was "clearly identified" as inherent instability in one of the four launch-vehicle engines. All external causes had been excluded, and the manufacturer was able to reproduce the failure at a single-engine test stand. Devices for fuel injection in the combustion chamber provided unstable despite positive tests during development. The fault, "unfortunately a very common phenomenon with liquid-fuel rocket engines," had occurred in "most rocket programmes... notably in the American programmes." ESA said that it had abandoned the injector in its present form and was working on modifications. The report concluded with a tentative launch schedule to be confirmed after the modifications were validated. (ESA Info Bltn, Jan 28/81 for release Feb 2/81)
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