Space shuttle Discovery to be rolled back to Vehicle Assembly Building

NASA engineers are planning on conducting a tanking test of space shuttle Discovery’s external tank, no-earlier-than Dec. 17. Technicians have been hampered by local weather which has been extremely windy – and cold. Temperatures in the local area have fallen into the twenties. This test will work to ensure that repairs that were made to the large, orange external tank (ET) after several cracks were discovered after the launch attempt on Nov. 5. The cracks were discovered on the intertank region of the ET. These 21-foot-long aluminum brackets are called ‘stringers’ and NASA has been striving to repair the first crack, only to discover a second and third crack. Engineers are stilling trying to figure the cause of the cracks. More

(Source: Examiner.com - Dec 16)