Augusta Georgia: still@ugusta: NASA to decide launch date for Still's second flight 6/27/97

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Still's First Mission

NASA to decide launch date for Still's second flight

Web posted June 28, 1997

By Amy Joyner
Staff Writer

NASA managers will meet today to set an official launch date for Lt. Cmdr. Susan Still's second flight into space.

The Augusta astronaut and six other crew members are set to blast off aboard the shuttle Columbia at 2:37 p.m. July 1 to complete unfinished business from their first mission together in April.

Twelve days ago, however, engineers discovered cracked heat-shielding tiles on Columbia and feared the repairs couldn't be made in time for the July 1 launch.

The shuttle was moved to the launch pad anyway, and by Wednesday engineers had replaced the 36 cracked tiles. They will test the seals on the tiles today, NASA spokesman George Diller said.

``The flight readiness review will establish final launch date and launch time,'' he said.

If Columbia launches on the targeted date, it will land at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 7:23 a.m. July 17.

During the 16-day mission, Jones Intercable in Augusta will broadcast NASA TV on cable channel 12, marketing coordinator Giselle Walton said.

In early April, the same astronauts spent four days in space on the ill-fated STS-83 mission. They were to spend 16 days in orbit conducting microgravity science experiments, but a defective power generator forced them back to Earth 12 days early.

In an unprecedented move, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided to send the same crew and payload back to space this summer to salvage the multimillion-dollar mission.

The reflight has been dubbed STS-94 and it will be Lt. Cmdr. Still's second spaceflight as a pilot.