NASA has abandoned plans to resume flying the space shuttle next March because of the impact of four hurricanes on space agency centers and work schedules, officials said Friday.
Officials running NASA’s space flight program, meeting at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the record number of hurricanes that pummeled Florida and the Gulf of Mexico this summer made the planned March-April launch window “no longer achievable.”
NASA’s spaceflight leadership council asked shuttle program officials to analyze whether a May or July date is more feasible for a shuttle launch, and to report back to the council later this month, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said.
NASA’s shuttle fleet has been grounded since space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board issued 15 recommendations NASA is working to meet before resuming shuttle flights. The agency has met five of the recommendations so far, Beutel said.
NASA officials said the shuttle would fly again only when the benchmarks were met, not because of a time schedule.
“More than a year ago, we set out specific plans for return to flight with specific milestones,” William Readdy, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations said in a statement. “Right now, those milestones are pointing us toward a new launch window.”
James Kennedy, director of Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, said recent hurricanes cost workers three weeks of processing time.
Hurricanes Charley and Frances caused widespread damage to NASA’s launch site in Florida in mid-August. Hurricane Jeanne later blew off 30 exterior panels from the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building.
The threat of Hurricane Ivan temporarily halted work on space shuttle Discovery at Lockheed Martin Corp.’s assembly plant in New Orleans, Beutel said.
The agency’s three space shuttles safely made it through the storms, but the damage and work delays at space centers throughout the Southeast strained an already tight deadline to launch Discovery.
“I am proud of our shuttle team for taking good care of our orbiters during this terrible storm season,” Readdy said. “I am pleased they are taking the time to make a careful assessment of the hurricanes’ impact. Their thoroughness will help us make the right decision.”
The first possible launch window beyond March or April opens on May 14, 2005, Beutel said. Other windows will follow in July and September.
The council met in Houston Friday to discuss the upcoming launch of the next space station crew, scheduled to take off from Kazakhstan on Oct. 14.
