With four seconds left, a bad valve scrubs a shuttle debut
After a series of exasperating delays because of a slipped thermal shield and a computer blackout, the new space shuttle Discovery sat perched on its Florida launch pad last Tuesday morning, its nose poked impatiently toward the sky. In a chase plane high above Kennedy Space Center, Astronaut John Young took a last look at the weather and gave the final O.K. for takeoff. The shuttle's on-board computers began the final countdown. "We are go for main-engine ignition," NASA Commentator Mark Hess announced....
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