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CNN Sunday Morning
NASA Prepares Next Space Shuttle Mission
Aired September 28, 2003 - 07:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: NASA is preparing for its next space shuttle mission. Atlantis is tapped to be the first shuttle in space since the Columbia disaster.
CNN's John Zarrella shows us the preparations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seven months ago, many of the men and women who work here scoured thick brush and forest in Texas for wreckage of the Shuttle Columbia. That was the low point.
Now they are working towards the high point, when shuttles fly again.
SCOTT THURSTON, ATLANTIS VEHICLE MGR.: Everybody was saddened by Columbia, but these people are pulling up their bootstraps and they're hitting it every day. And you don't hear anybody saying we can't. Everybody's out here working their tails off.
ZARRELLA: Working to prepare Atlantis for a scheduled March 11 lift off. It will be the first to fly again. Cocooned in scaffolding in the orbiter processing facility, a giant space plane hangar, the shuttle is barely recognizable. The engineers here are working on the wings. From the inside, to the painstaking work outside, removing for inspection all 44 of Atlantis' leading edge panels, to ensure there are no defects.
RICHARD BECKWITH, ORBITER ENGINEER: What you see in here is something we haven't done before, where we completely dissect all the hardware, look at every nut, bolt very closely.
ZARRELLA: It was a leading edge panel on Columbia's left wing that was breached 81 seconds after lift off, by a piece of foam insulation that broke loose from the shuttle's giant external fuel tank.
On re-entry, super hot gases entered the hole in the wing, causing Columbia to break apart.
(on camera): The Atlantis engineering team is confident its work will be done on the vehicle in time for a March 11 lift off. But NASA officials say there may not be enough time between now and then for them to implement all of the recommendations of the Columbia accident investigation board. The board recommended NASA improve the impact resistance of panels and thermal tiles. That will take time. For now, the space agency is concentrating on eliminating the shedding of debris from the external tank, that can hit the delicate tiles.
NASA is also working on a method for in orbit inspection and repair of the tiles. Putting all this in place could push the launch date back weeks.
John Zarrella, CNN, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 28, 2003 - 07:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: NASA is preparing for its next space shuttle mission. Atlantis is tapped to be the first shuttle in space since the Columbia disaster.
CNN's John Zarrella shows us the preparations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seven months ago, many of the men and women who work here scoured thick brush and forest in Texas for wreckage of the Shuttle Columbia. That was the low point.
Now they are working towards the high point, when shuttles fly again.
SCOTT THURSTON, ATLANTIS VEHICLE MGR.: Everybody was saddened by Columbia, but these people are pulling up their bootstraps and they're hitting it every day. And you don't hear anybody saying we can't. Everybody's out here working their tails off.
ZARRELLA: Working to prepare Atlantis for a scheduled March 11 lift off. It will be the first to fly again. Cocooned in scaffolding in the orbiter processing facility, a giant space plane hangar, the shuttle is barely recognizable. The engineers here are working on the wings. From the inside, to the painstaking work outside, removing for inspection all 44 of Atlantis' leading edge panels, to ensure there are no defects.
RICHARD BECKWITH, ORBITER ENGINEER: What you see in here is something we haven't done before, where we completely dissect all the hardware, look at every nut, bolt very closely.
ZARRELLA: It was a leading edge panel on Columbia's left wing that was breached 81 seconds after lift off, by a piece of foam insulation that broke loose from the shuttle's giant external fuel tank.
On re-entry, super hot gases entered the hole in the wing, causing Columbia to break apart.
(on camera): The Atlantis engineering team is confident its work will be done on the vehicle in time for a March 11 lift off. But NASA officials say there may not be enough time between now and then for them to implement all of the recommendations of the Columbia accident investigation board. The board recommended NASA improve the impact resistance of panels and thermal tiles. That will take time. For now, the space agency is concentrating on eliminating the shedding of debris from the external tank, that can hit the delicate tiles.
NASA is also working on a method for in orbit inspection and repair of the tiles. Putting all this in place could push the launch date back weeks.
John Zarrella, CNN, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
