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From: rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Discovery flight postponed again
Message-ID: <543@ihlts.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Aug-84 01:58:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlts.543
Posted: Wed Aug 29 01:58:27 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 00:33:49 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 22

NASA announced late Tuesday evening that the first flight of the space
shuttle Discovery had been postponed for the third time in two months.
Launch has been rescheduled for 8:36 a.m. EDT Thursday, August 30.

Tuesday afternoon, technicians discovered problems with an onboard electronic
device called the master events controller (MEC).  The MEC commands the
separation of boosters and fuel tanks and begins the firing of the boosters
and the detonation of the explosive bolts that hold the shuttle to the
launch pad.

Twice before, the crew of six had entered the shuttle, only to have the
launch scrubbed.  A computer failure stopped the countdown at T-9 minutes
June 25 and the next day a faulty valve in one of the main engines caused an
abort just seconds before the solid rockets were to have been ignited.
This time, the crew was asleep when NASA officials made the decision less
than 12 hours before the scheduled liftoff.  Loading the shuttle's huge
external tank with supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen had not
yet begun.

The weather for Thursday morning looked good for a launch, forecasters said.
--
Roger Noe			uucp: ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe