Shuttle-Blasted Trench Wall Requires Fix Before October

摘要

NASA officials are evaluating how they will repair the flame trench at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A before the next shuttle flight. During the launch of Discovery on May 31, about 5,300 refractory bricks were blown off and scattered across an expansive debris field, exposing a 20-ft x 75-ft section of the trench's concrete wall near where the solid rocket booster sits. "The wall is OK, but we need to make sure we put something in front of it so it remains OK; something heat-resistant like the material Fondu Fyre," says Allard Beutel, Kennedy Space Center news chief.