Tim Furniss/LONDON
THE SPACE SHUTTLE mission STS70/Discovery, which had been scheduled for launch on 8 June, was cancelled on 2 June after woodpeckers damaged its brown external tank (ET). The birds, from the Kennedy Space Centre's wildlife refuge, mistook the ET for a tree.
They made 71 holes in the insulation of the upper part of the ET and NASA was forced to bring the Discovery back into the Vehicle Assembly Building to make repairs to the tank, which holds the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen for the Shuttle's main engines.
The STS70 mission, which is to deploy the final TRW-built Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, will be delayed until at least mid-July and may even be flown in August, after the STS69/Endeavour mission, carrying the Wake Shield 2 free-flier.
The next Shuttle mission becomes the historic STS71/Atlantic flight to dock with the Russian Mir 1 space station. Its launch is scheduled for no earlier than 22 June, with the docking two days later. It will be the 100th US manned space flight.
NASA astronaut Norman Thagard broke the US space-endurance record aboard the Mir 1 on 6 June. He exceeded the 84 days achieved by three Skylab 4 astronauts in 1984. The longest Russian space flight is 437 days. Thagard will return to Earth aboard the Atlantis.
Source: Flight International