As Return to Flight nears, the STS-114 Shuttle Crew arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Jan. 7 to checkout newly arrived flight hardware. They viewed the redesigned External Tank -- which arrived two days earlier and is undergoing inspection and testing in the Vehicle Assembly Building. They also got a change to see the new Orbiter Boom Sensor System that will fly on their Return to Flight mission as part of new safety measures. Led by Commander Eileen Collins, the crew said they are ready to fly. 'It's important to say it's time for us to go fly.' The crew discussed their mission, which will include revamped hardware geared at making the flight safer. 'First of all, if it wasn't safe, I wouldn't get on it. So I think that's pretty obvious. So I have the utmost confidence that this is going to be an extremely safe flight. This is the kind of stuff that when we go back to the Moon and on to Mars, we're going to have to have astronauts that are good hands-on engineer guys and gals and we're doing that on the Space Station right now.' They see the mission as part of the greater NASA Vision.
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NASA ID
ksc_010705_rtfcrew
Date Created
January 7, 2005
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KSC
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video
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NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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