The reluctant Space Shuttle

摘要

It was to have been the triumphant 'Return to Flight'. But instead the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-114 mission, the first since her sister ship Columbia was lost during re-entry in February 2003, seemed to emphasise the daunting technical problems facing NASA as the agency tries to make Shuttle flights routine again. Millions of dollars were spent on the effort to correct the problem that led to Columbia's destruction but after STS-114 NASA had to admit it is uncertain when the Space Shuttle will fly again. Although the future of the project seems in doubt, the situation is nothing new. NASA has been plagued by serious technical problems before and Shuttle flight operations have been suspended on several occasions. In the second half of 1990 the Space Shuttle experienced a frustrating series of hydrogen leaks, which effectively grounded the entire fleet for several months. Attention was initially focused on the STS-35/Columbia mission, one of the most reluctant spaceflights ever to get off the pad, but soon other missions were also affected. So many confusing problems occurred during these months that it was not easy to keep track of what was happening.