alb (04/10/83)
With STS-6 over and judged an overwhelming success by NASA, James Abrahamson, director of the STS program, said that the launch date for STS-7 has been tentatively set for 9 June. That would mean a turnaround of 2 months, something not yet accomplished in the program. If the mission launches on time, STS-8 would take off some time in August, and that would put the program back on schedule, with STS-9 and Spacelab due to take off on 30 September. NASA said yesterday that Challenger experienced only 22 anomalies in its maiden flight, compared to 82 on Columbia's. Included in Challenger's were some damaged thermal blankets on the OMS pods, a computer shutdown, and some oxygen and nitrogen problems in the cabin. None were deemed serious by NASA.