Word: delay
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...orbiter from its external fuel tank and two booster rockets. Challenger could then loop swiftly back to Kennedy's landing strip. Nonetheless, the crosswinds were too strong for a sure landing. No such emergency had ever been encountered, but once again NASA took the prudent course: yet another delay...
...They decided that there was no danger of any icicles breaking away on lift-off and harming the heat-shield tiles. Just 20 minutes before the scheduled lift-off, they made another check. A Rockwell engineer in California, watching by closed-circuit TV, telephoned the cape to urge a delay because of the ice. But Kennedy Space Center Director Richard Smith, having been advised that there was little risk, permitted the countdown to continue...
...stop governing the nation because of a tragedy of this kind. So, yes, one will continue." Leaders on Capitol Hill, however, immediately sensed the incongruity of an upbeat national address at such a time. House Republican Leader Robert Michel telephoned Chief of Staff Donald Regan to urge a delay. Regan phoned House Speaker Tip O'Neill and Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole. Both strongly advised a postponement, and the White House agreed. Spokesman Larry Speakes announced that the address would wait a week, until this Tuesday...
...during Cape Canaveral's 27 degrees F weather the night before the lift-off, had somehow damaged the shuttle. In fact, engineers at Rockwell International, the prime contractor for the shuttle, saw the ice in televised shots of Pad 39-B and telephoned NASA to urge a delay in the launch. But Space Flight Director Moore said that an "ice team" had inspected the shuttle. "We checked just 20 minutes prior to launch, and the consensus of the reports was good," he said. "It was decided that very low risk would be involved...
...flaw can be identified and corrected, those questions will remain unanswered. But a few things seem clear. One is that even the temporary grounding of the shuttles, decreed by NASA immediately after the Challenger disaster, is a stunning setback to the entire U.S. space program. It will at best delay, and at worst force cancellation of, a wide variety of missions that were to have been carried out by shuttle-riding astronauts: launchings of scientific space probes and commercial and military satellites, as well as testing of equipment designed for use in President Reagan's Star Wars program. Says Marcia...