Discovery puts space plans back on track

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 6

Discovery puts space plans back on track

NZPA-Reuter Cape Canaveral The space shuttle Discovery has returned to Earth and put the U.S. space programme back on schedule. When the brand-new craft landed in California yesterday after a highly successful maiden voyage, it in a sense completed its first two missions.

After Discovery’s inaugural flight was delayed in June, officials combined the main elements of its first two planned missions into thgone it has successfully

“This flight brings us back on schedule again so that beginning in October we will be essentially launching once a month,” Jesse Moore, head of the shuttle programme, said after Discovery returned from six days in space.

The track is an ambitious one, especially in terms of the shuttle’s record. Having launched 12 winged orbiters in 40 months, the United States space agency must now launch one nearly every month.

Only two shuttles yrill be available until May. ©Mum-

bia, the first, is being refurbished and Discovery and Challenger will alternate flying the seven monthly missions between now and then.

The schedule is so tight that Challenger will be “rolled out” to the launch pad on the same day Discovery returns to prepare for its next flight. Challenger will make a seventh flight next month carrying a record crew of seven, equal to the entire astronaut corps when the American space programme began 25 years ago.