May 22 1980
From The Space Library
NASA announced a change of date to April 1982 for completing orbital flight tests of the Shuttle. "Several factors" such as continuing engineering assessment and improvement of the thermal-protection system led to the decision. First operational flight of Columbia, now slipped from March to September 1982, would carry the tracking and data-relay satellite TDRS-A into a geosynchronous orbit. Other schedule adjustments would be discussed with users at KSC May 29-30. Changes in the manifests had been coordinated with DOD, NASA said; it would make use of Deltas during the transition to full Shuttle operations. Others set to use the Delta included Telesat of Canada, Hughes Aircraft, and Indonesia. (NASA Release 80-74; JSC Release 80-037)
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