Discovery to go to space despite Hurricane Dennis

Discovery to go to space despite Hurricane Dennis

NASA has decided to keep the Space Shuttle at its launch pad despite the threats from the approaching Hurricane Dennis. And they are all set for the launch on the July 13. Dennis is classified as a category 4 hurricane and it is expected to create winds of speeds up to 145 miles per hour. It has going towards the Gulf of Mexico on the west side of the Florida peninsula and was creating havoc in the Florida Keys last night.

This would be the Space Shuttle’s first mission to space since the Columbia disaster in 2003. NASA has worked very hard since the last 2.5 years to reach this stage when they can claim that the Shuttle is safe for flight again. The issues related to the safety of the crew during the launch have already delayed the shuttle’s mission many times and NASA is not taking any more chances.

NASA’s Public Affairs officer Jessica F. Rye has said that the shuttle is strong enough to sustain any winds up to the speeds of 60 knots per hour on its launch pad. Should the wind speeds exceed that, NASA would probably have to move the Shuttle back to its Vehicle Assembly Building, which can take as much as 2 days. The problem is that during that period, the shuttle’s capabilities of surviving the hurricane drops down to speeds of 40 knots.

However, doing that would also mean that NASA could not be able to move the shuttle back to the launch pad before the July 21 and that would leave little space for NASA to launch the shuttle. NASA has until July 31 to launch the Shuttle considering the period after that is not safe for launch. If the Shuttle is delayed again, the space agency would have to wait until September 9 to get another period of launch window.