spacetoday.net: NASA plans for May shuttle launch

Posted: Sat, Oct 15, 2005, 11:08 AM ET (1508 GMT)
STS-107: launch (NASA/KSC)

NASA shuttle managers said Friday they believed they could have the shuttle ready for its next launch in May 2006 after gaining a better understanding of what caused the loss of foam during July's launch. An agency "tiger team" studying the problem believes that the foam came off during flight in part because of inadvertent damage to the foam by technicians working on the tank. A change in the foam formulation on the tank's PAL ramp, where foam came off during Discovery's launch in July, may have also played a role. NASA has not set an official launch date for the shuttle but is informally targeting a launch window that runs from May 3-23; after that, the next launch window opens at the beginning of July. Shuttle managers were optimistic that they could launch during the May window despite losing up to three months of work because of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the shuttle's external tanks are built.