KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - United Space Alliance (USA) workers J.D. Wise, left, and Robert Shackelford, with drill, try to stop an approximately 24-foot-long crack from getting any bigger on the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP), which is holding the Space Shuttle Discovery en route to Launch Pad 39A for the STS-82 mission. Discovery was on its way out to the launch pad when engineers heard a loud bang and noticed that a crack had developed on the MLP. Rollout had begun shortly after 7 a.m. EST and was stopped at about 8:25 a.m. This Y-shaped crack is on the MLP surface and runs from near the left-hand solid rocket booster flame hole toward the near corner of the MLP. Rollout of Discovery resumed just past noon after structural engineers determined that the integrity of the MLP had not been compromised. Discovery is scheduled to lift off on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission on Feb. 11.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - United Space Alliance (USA) workers J.D. Wise, left, and Robert Shackelford, with drill, try to stop an approximately 24-foot-long crack from getting any bigger on the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP), which is holding the Space Shuttle Discovery en route to Launch Pad 39A for the STS-82 mission. Discovery was on its way out to the launch pad when engineers heard a loud bang and noticed that a crack had developed on the MLP. Rollout had begun shortly after 7 a.m. EST and was stopped at about 8:25 a.m. This Y-shaped crack is on the MLP surface and runs from near the left-hand solid rocket booster flame hole toward the near corner of the MLP. Rollout of Discovery resumed just past noon after structural engineers determined that the integrity of the MLP had not been compromised. Discovery is scheduled to lift off on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission on Feb. 11.