The Magic Is Back!

On a thundering pillar of fire, Discovery carries the nation's hopes aloft again

  • RED MORGAN

    Oct. 10, 1988 TIME Cover: Whew! America Returns to Space

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    What may have been the biggest surprise of the mission's first three days was a bracing wake-up call recorded by comedian Robin Williams, patterned after the tag line of his movie Good Morning, Vietnam. At 5:30 a.m. Friday, the astronauts heard blaring from a cabin loudspeaker: "Gooooood Morning, Discovery! Rise and shine. Time to start doing that shuttle shuffle. Hey! Here's a little song coming from the billions of us to the five of you."

    For a few hours during the Thursday-morning countdown, however, the shuttle shuffle appeared destined for a scrub. All week NASA technicians had isolated small glitches, from a tiny gas leak on a main engine to a slight scratch on a thruster rocket. Finally they seemed confident that only bad weather might postpone the shuttle's launch. Although launch day dawned bright and sunny, meteorologists warned that the high-altitude winds in the shuttle's flight path, normally unruly in the Cape Canaveral region during late September, had uncharacteristically died down. The problem: Discovery's computers had been programmed to maneuver the craft through strong, buffeting winds. "Imagine yourself leaning way forward into a stiff wind," explained Thomas Utsman, director of shuttle management and operations. "But suddenly and unexpectedly, the wind stops, and you fall flat on your face."

    That in effect is what NASA feared might happen to the shuttle unless its computers were reprogrammed, a task they figured would delay the launch by at least a day. Taking no chances, NASA pushed back the launch time, while meteorologists continuously monitored the winds with weather balloons. Before long, the winds did shift and pick up a little, but they were still outside NASA's criteria for a launch. After a detailed analysis, the mission- management team agreed that the shuttle was not endangered. Astronaut Robert Crippen, charged with making the final go or no-go decision, had no qualms about waiving the wind restriction. Less than an hour after Discovery finally lifted off, an hour and 38 minutes late, clouds moved in, and a bit later heavy rainstorms pelted the cape.

    To most of the millions who witnessed Discovery's lift-off, the spacecraft on the launchpad looked little different from its ill-fated predecessor, Challenger. But the similarity was only skin deep. Responding to the recommendations of the Rogers commission, the 13-member panel appointed by the White House to investigate the causes of the Challenger tragedy, NASA spent $2.4 billion redesigning and replacing crucial components of its shuttle fleet. Over the past two years, the space agency has made more than 400 changes in the winged orbiter -- including a much touted new escape system -- the solid rocket boosters, the orbiter's three liquid-fuel engines and the huge external fuel tank. What is more, each of the modifications or changes was laboriously reviewed by the Discovery astronauts. "NASA went far beyond our recommendations and fixed all that we wanted," says Robert B. Hotz, a member of the Rogers commission. "There was a whole series of potential accidents waiting to happen. I'm pleased with what NASA has done so far."

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