sjb (05/18/82)
The space shuttle Columbia's rollout to the VAB will be delayed at least seven hours, while technicians replace a faulty valve in its main engines. The delay is not expected to expect other launch preparations. Officials expect the movement to the VAB to start at 1900 EDT Tuesday, followed by a roll out to the launch pad on 25 May; target date for STS-4's launch is 27 June. Meanwhile, the space shuttle Challenger is almost finished and is expected to be moved out of its hangar near 30 June. It will be towed to Edwards Air Force Base, where it will be mated atop a 747 and flown to Cape Canaveral. If all goes right, it and the prototype shuttle Enterprise will be within towing distance of the Columbia when it touches down after STS-4. In other Soviet Space news, Moscow has announced that the cosmonauts aboard the Salyut 7 space station have launched a communications satellite by shoving it out of an air lock. While Tass said that this was an ingenious new launch, it has been done before by the Soviets.