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Shuttle, space station link amid NASA woes
"Discovery arriving," Phillips called out, as Collins, pilot Jim Kelly, flight engineer Steve Robinson, Japan's Soichi Noguchi and astronauts Andy Thomas, Charles Camarda and Wendy Lawrence floated into the station's Destiny laboratory module. This flight was supposed to have been a triumphant return of the shuttle to the space station for the first time since November 2002, but NASA's surprise decision to ground the rest of the aging orbiter fleet took the glow off. The U.S. space agency said the flying debris captured on video at Discovery's launch was too similar to what brought down shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003, and showed that the debris problem was not fixed after 2 1/2 years of work and more than $1 billion in safety improvements. Video of the launch shows the foam floating harmlessly away from the shuttle although engineers were still reviewing images and sensor data taken during liftoff, Shannon said. NASA officials said they do not know when shuttles will fly again. Atlantis was scheduled to launch in September. A 1.67 pound (0.75-kg) piece of insulating foam from Columbia's external fuel tank broke loose at launch on January 16, 2003, and struck the left wing, causing a hole in the heat shield that doomed the shuttle during re-entry 16 days later. As Columbia glided toward Florida, superheated gases from the earth's atmosphere entered the breach and broke the ship apart over Texas, killing its seven astronauts. MORE INSPECTIONS FRIDAY Engineers have determined that the biggest piece of foam
that fell from Discovery's tank weighed 0.9 pounds (0.48 kg). The foam is part
of a ramp that runs alongside the tank to protect cables, electrical connections
and pressure hoses.
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