Gunk Grounds the Second Shuttle

Columbia's new mission is aborted 31 seconds before lift-off

Two days before blastoff, preparations for the second launching of the space shuttle Columbia were "just going bang, bang, bang," according to Deke Slayton, manager of NASA's shuttle test program. Things were running so far ahead of schedule, in fact, that most workers at the Kennedy Space Center were given a morning off. Even the astronauts, Air Force Colonel Joe H. Engle, 49, and Navy Captain Richard H.

Truly, 44 this week, would have time for "goofing off," Slayton noted. As a crowd of half a million gathered at Cape Canaveral, the only apparent clouds on the horizon were the clouds on the horizon--an Atlantic storm that could pose a landing problem should the mission have to abort. But the go-ahead was given and the final countdown begun. Only in its last nine minutes did the mechanical elements start to bluster.

At T-minus-nine minutes, a slight drop in liquid-oxygen pressure was detected in the huge 526,000-gal. external fuel tank and in one of three oxygen tanks carried aboard the orbiter. Flight Director Neil Hutchinson at Mission Control in Houston stopped the countdown and consulted other technicians. The problem did not seem serious. Pressure in the tanks could be adjusted by warming the oxygen with on-board heaters. Ground computers guiding the launch were instructed to ignore the pressure drop, and the countdown continued.

Next, a loss of pressure was recorded in a second on-board tank. Again, the computers were told to proceed. But when the third tank registered the same problem, only 40 seconds remained before lift off. Before the computers could be redirected, they had shut down the launch at T-minus-31 seconds.

"It was a race between finger time and electronic time," said NASA Spokesman Rocky Raab. "Electronics won."

Mission Control resolved to try again, but a new mechanical storm cloud soon appeared. Two oil filters, closely resembling the ones used in automobiles, had become clogged with gunk. As a result, two of the shuttle's three auxiliary power units--hydraulic devices crucial to entering orbit and landing--were questionable.

The trouble was not unfamiliar. "We have had a history of contaminants clogging the system," admitted a technician at Kennedy. NASA engineers had even included a bypass around the oil filters just in case. Such clogging is usually caused by a leak in liquid hydrazine, the auxiliary power units' fuel. Hydrazine reacts with lubricating oil to form waxy polymers, or gunk. Despite this hazard, prelaunch preparations did not include an oil change; the two jammed systems were running on the same oil used in last April's shuttle mission. Significantly, the oil in the one working system was fresh.

At week's end, NASA officials rescheduled the launch for this Thursday after determining that the oil systems were in working order. This was scant consolation to the Detroit News. A front-page story headlined COLUMBIA DOES AN ENCORE appeared in some of last Wednesday's editions, describing the "perfect launch" in glowing detail. This week with a little luck and good Floridian weather, both the News and NASA might get it right.

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