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[Isiah Harrell]

For this latest challenge, Fossett and his mission control team at Kansas State University face a tricky triple threat: weather, sleep deprivation and conserving precious fuel.

 

 

Three suicide bombings and a mortar attack killed at least five people in Iraq today. At least 62 others were wounded in a wave of insurgent attacks The violence coincides with the climax of Ashura, a major Shiite religious festivalThe October flight of Rutan's SpaceShipOne won his team the $10 million X Prize, an award from a nonprofit foundation aimed at spurring civilian space flight.Fossett holds dozens of aviation and nautical records, including the fastest flight of a nonsupersonic airplane -- 742.02 mph (1,193.9 kph).In fact, Branson and Rutan know something about the far reaches of the atmosphere. Last year Rutan led the first manned commercial flight to reach the edge of space and was commissioned by Branson to build a spacecraft for paying passengers -- possibly within five years. In addition, NASA imposed its own restrictions, including limiting launches to daylight hours -- at least for the first two test flights -- so that any falling debris from the external tank could be seen and investigated before the shuttle tried to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. NASA will also require the first two shuttles to go to the international space station so that if there were irreparable damage, the astronauts could wait there for another shuttle to get them.

When the shuttle re-entered the atmosphere, searing hot gases seeped into the wing and incinerated the spacecraft.NASA said Discovery's launch is to be followed by a July 12 Atlantis launch.NASA has been developing repair techniques for the space shuttle's thermal protection system for the past two years. Not all of the techniques have panned out and the Discovery crew will be testing only three potential fixes for tile instead of the five originally planned. There will be no tests on repair techniques for the reinforced carbon used on the shuttle's wings, where the hole was created in Columbia.Three suicide bombings and a mortar attack killed at least five people in Iraq today. At least 62 others were wounded in a wave of insurgent attacks. The violence coincides with the climax of Ashura, a major Shiite religious festivalIn addition, NASA imposed its own restrictions, including limiting launches to daylight hours -- at least for the first two test flights -- so that any falling debris from the external tank could be seen and investigated before the shuttle tried to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. NASA will also require the first two shuttles to go to the international space station so that if there were irreparable damage, the astronauts could wait there for another shuttle to get them.

 

Because of these restrictions there are only a limited number of opportunities to launch the space shuttle. The first starts May 15 and runs through June 3, when NASA hopes to launch Discovery. The second window opens July 12, when NASA hopes to launch Atlantis. Readdy admitted he hoped the techniques would be further along, but said that two years ago repairing the shuttle's thermal protection system while in flight was thought impossible.The shuttle fleet has been grounded since Columbia broke apart over Texas while on landing approach to Florida's Kennedy Space Center on February 1, 2003.NASA has been developing repair techniques for the space shuttle's thermal protection system for the past two years. Not all of the techniques have panned out and the Discovery crew will be testing only three potential fixes for tile instead of the five originally planned. There will be no tests on repair techniques for the reinforced carbon used on the shuttle's wings, where the hole was created in Columbia.The shuttle fleet has been grounded since Columbia broke apart over Texas while on landing approach to Florida's Kennedy Space Center on February 1, 2003.