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NASA eager to finish research aborted on Columbia
Shuttle could resume mission in July
April 8, 1997
Web posted at: 10:22 p.m. EDT (0222 GMT)KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- With the space shuttle Columbia safely home Tuesday after an abbreviated mission, NASA officials began planning to return the craft to orbit.
"We're going to try to give y'all an oil change and send you back," Kennedy Space Center Director Roy Bridges joked with shuttle commander Jim Halsell after Columbia's early homecoming..
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"We are evaluating the possibility of re-flying as early as the first part of July," said Tommy Holloway, shuttle program director. "I expect that evaluation will take the rest of this week."
Before leaving orbit, the astronauts had learned in an e-mail message from NASA managers that there was a chance they could fly the mission again.
"It's not a done deal yet, but certainly this crew is ready," Halsell said.
The shuttle touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida about 2:33 p.m. Its landing may have been garden variety, but the mission was anything but.
The shuttle, launched Friday, was supposed to stay up for 16 days. But the mission was cut short because of problems with Columbia's power-generating units. It was only the third time since the shuttle program began in 1981 that a mission had to return home early.
Fuel cell problems
The three fuel cells had been losing voltage since Friday's launch. Although they stressed that the astronauts aboard the flight were in no immediate danger, NASA officials decided it would be prudent to call off the mission.
Fuel cells produce electricity that drives all of the shuttle's systems, and flight rules require that all three be operating properly in orbit.
One such fuel cell, costing $5 million, on shuttle Atlantis was being replaced on Tuesday as a precaution, Holloway said. Atlantis was scheduled to fly to the Russian space station Mir next month.
Unfinished research
The $500 million-plus mission was to include 33 experiments that now will have to find room in the payload for another shuttle mission. The seven crew members crammed as much work as they could into their mission but left orbit with only a fraction of their $84 million research program accomplished.
"We're just sorry we're having to close up shop early," mission control's Marc Garneau told the crew as they shut down Columbia's laboratory early on Tuesday.
"This one was a bummer," scientist-astronaut Roger Crouch said after returning to Earth.
Columbia's crew had been living in near-darkness, working with flashlights since the troublesome power generator was shut down on Sunday. All nonessential equipment, including most of the lighting, was turned off to conserve power for scientific experiments.
Among the experiments they hoped to perform were several to study the behavior of fire in space.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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