NASA Return to Flight

NASA and its STS-114 team have set a date for its "Return to Flight" mission from May 12 to June 3, 2004. This is the first pre-flight scenario since the 2003 Columbia accident.

The STS-114 Astronaut team have been practicing simulations that Paul Hill, the lead flight director for Shuttle Mission STS-114, says "look and feel to us just like a real flight -- even to the astronauts."

Flight Controllers from both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station will be working together in the simulations of stationary and/or moving Shuttle simulators that mimic an actual flight with possible scenarios and practice sessions that grade the crew on problem solving performance.

One major scenario is a somersault that will give the ability to view the underside of the shuttle for inspection prior to re-entry. Shuttle program manager William Parsons said that a redesign of the fuel tanks should ensure that no debris will break away large enough to seriously damage the carbon panels that protect the shuttle, though if it were to happen, NASA still has not implemented a way to fix an orbiting shuttle damaged in such a way.

TTFN
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