Robot to find boosters

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 8

Robot to find boosters

NZPA Cape Canaveral A remote-control robot will be sent to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean later this week in an effort to retrieve data recorders from two sunken space shuttle booster rocket casings, N.A.S.A. officials said yesterday. Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration hope that information from the recorders will help to explain why the SUS 36 , million (SNZ49 million) casings sank after the shuttle’s last launch, in-

stead of floating for reuse. The casings had been separated from the shuttle two minutes after lift-off, and sank 240 km east of Cape Canaveral, in 944 metres of water. N.A.S.A. officials have said that the shuttle Columbia, scheduled to fly its fifth mission in November, would' not be launched again until they determine why the casings sank. The robot had been scheduled to sail from Baltimore, Maryland, yesterday

aboard a .N.A.S.A. booster? recovery ship, and is due to * arrive at Cape Canaveral tomorrow or Friday. Armed with ’claw-like graspers, television cameras sonar and a metal cutter, the robot will be directed to locate and retrieve tape recorders mounted inside the boosters. The recorders are similar to the crash-proof recorders carried on commercial airliners to record cockpit conversations and airplane flight characteristics.