Oxygen Leak on Discovery Investigated
Mark Carreau
Houston Chronicle, US
_________________
The shuttle Discovery recorded oxygen levels in its rocket engine compartment that slightly exceeded the level at which a fire could break out when the spacecraft lifted off on the first mission since the Columbia accident, NASA said Thursday.The space agency tries to keep the compartment as free of oxygen as possible during the countdown and liftoff because of the danger that the gas could feed an explosion or fire.
About two minutes into Discovery's 9 1/2 -minute climb to orbit with seven astronauts on July 26, the oxygen level reached 18.5 percent of the engine compartment's air, according to one reading.A level of 13.6 percent was measured simultaneously on the opposite side of the compartment by a second device.
At that point, engineers consider oxygen levels of about 18 percent acceptable.Shuttle engineers discovered the high reading shortly after Discovery was ferried by air from its landing site in California to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Dec 09, 2005
Mark Carreau
Houston Chronicle, US
_________________
The shuttle Discovery recorded oxygen levels in its rocket engine compartment that slightly exceeded the level at which a fire could break out when the spacecraft lifted off on the first mission since the Columbia accident, NASA said Thursday.The space agency tries to keep the compartment as free of oxygen as possible during the countdown and liftoff because of the danger that the gas could feed an explosion or fire.
About two minutes into Discovery's 9 1/2 -minute climb to orbit with seven astronauts on July 26, the oxygen level reached 18.5 percent of the engine compartment's air, according to one reading.A level of 13.6 percent was measured simultaneously on the opposite side of the compartment by a second device.
At that point, engineers consider oxygen levels of about 18 percent acceptable.Shuttle engineers discovered the high reading shortly after Discovery was ferried by air from its landing site in California to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Dec 09, 2005
