Technicians are making the final attachments of space shuttle Discovery to its external fuel tank after resolving an issue with a main separation bold nut early this morning.
The nut slipped back into Discovery's aft compartment Friday morning as technicians were attaching the left-side main separation bolt on the bottom of the shuttle to the external tank in NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida. The right-side bolt already had been attached. No hardware was damaged in the incident.
After thoroughly evaluating the situation and developing a plan to fix the problem, technicians put up several platforms Friday night and used them to enter Discovery’s aft section through an access door. They then moved the nut back into position and finished attaching the bold, which is used to separate Discovery from the external tank once the shuttle is in orbit.
Barring any further complications, Discovery should be fully attached to its external tank and two solid rocket boosters today, which would keep it on track to be rolled out to Launch Pad 39A as scheduled on Sept. 20.
Discovery and its six astronaut crew are targeted to launch on the STS-133 mission with supplies and a new module for the International Space Station on Nov. 1.
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