NASA Hopes To Move Beyond Columbia

Pilot James Kelly. Mission Specialist Stephen K. Robinson. Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese space agency NASDA. Commander Eileen M. Collins. They will fly the next space shuttle mission, STS-114, the first since the Columbia tragedy.

The question is, when?

"Our intent is to look at a target of opportunity on the horizon (to resume shuttle flights) as early as the end of this calendar year if at all possible," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe upon naming the crew. But there's still a lot of work to be done to ensure the same terrible fate that befell the previous seven-member crew doesn't repeat itself.

The window for resumption of space missions for NASA's three remaining shuttles is, according to space officials, sometime between next fall and April 2004. If the American space agency can get the shuttles flying again by fall, there's a chance the next mission to the International Space Station won't be flown by Russians after all. But nobody at NASA is ready to lay odds on that.

On The Road

In the meantime, O'Keefe is racking up the frequent flyer miles. On May 4, he'll be at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to welcome home the two Americans and one Russian from ISS-6. Then, he's off to Texas, to review the effort to recover debris from the shuttle Columbia. So far, O'Keefe says, about 40 percent of the Columbia's total mass has been recovered. The pieces, large and small, are being shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for analysis.

It's a sometimes bittersweet, sometimes somber time for the crew of STS-114. All of them are now deeply involved in the recovery and analysis of Columbia debris, after the shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry February 1. When they fly, they'll be the most photographed shuttle mission to date, with American spy satellites zeroing in on the shuttle to ensure it suffered no fatal damage on lift-off or in orbit. Again, however, the question is, when will they go into space? And, as of yet, NASA hasn't announced which of the surviving shuttles - Atlantis, Endeavour or Discovery, will make the flight.

FMI: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov