rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe) (08/29/84)
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
mikevp@proper.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt) (09/18/84)
<< This line is a figment of a deranged imagination >> I got an opportunity to visit the Vandenburg shuttle launch site about a year ago, and there just isn't any place for anyone to watch it from, whether the Air Force wants to let them or not. The launch site is on the coast, and surrounded by hills. I'm pretty sure you would get a good view of it as it rose over the hills, but the only place you could see it take off and survive is from the ocean.