Oct 8 1981
From The Space Library
NASA postponed the second Shuttle launch to November 4 because of tile damage caused by an oxidizer spill September 22. Tile replacement was "proceeding well," and measures had been taken to prevent further spillage.
Science magazine described the "minor problems" causing previous postponements: tests that took longer than expected and various handling mishaps. The Shuttle's complexity would "resist. attempts to operate with aircraft-like efficiency," the article said. NASA had already decided to trim its Shuttle flights by 30% over the next three years, from 44 missions to 28: it had less money to spend on flying its own satellites and science experiments, as it had to pay for Shuttle modifications and construction of more orbiters.
The delicate instruments planned for the second flight had almost been delayed to a later mission by the discovery that pressures from the solid-fuel boosters against the KSC module launch pad could damage the experiments: the shock had been 2.4 pounds per square inch, not the expected 0.6, enough to buckle a strut supporting a fuel tank near the cabin. If the tank had been jarred enough to leak or malfunction, the first-flight crew would not have been able to orient the Shuttle properly for landing. NASA engineers devised a system of nylon water troughs to disperse the shock and redesigned the launch platform to allow jet watersprays to dissipate the pressure. (NASA Release 81-160; W Post, Oct 9/81, A-15; Science, Oct 9/81, 160)
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