February 16, 2009—NASA top managers meet this week to review a previous meeting by the Space Shuttle program team. At issue are the flow control valves on the spacecraft and whether a broken one could cause an explosion on launch day. I also met with the winners of WLRN’s latest “space day” sweepstakes…

The first launch of 2009 has been postponed twice because of a part the size of a fountain pen. The flow control valves pop up and down like a lawn sprinkler to maintain the flow of fuel from the Shuttle’s external fuel tank to the main engines. One broke during Endeavour’s liftoff last November. The concern is that a piece of metal from a valve could puncture the tank and blow up the Shuttle. Depending on how the meeting goes, Discovery could liftoff on February 27^th. That’s the “no earlier than” planning date.

I also met with Phedra Raminez and her twelve year old daughter Leah-Catherine in Brevard County on Saturday. They won the latest “space day” sweepstakes from WLRN in Miami, and I had a chance to swap NASA stories and sign their copies of “Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program.” The first winner back in June was a librarian for the Miami-Dade County Public Library System.

Also, sat down for a good interview with Curtis Krueger for the St. Petersburg Times about the end of the Shuttle program. Here’s the link…

http://www.tampabay.com/news/science/space/article976256.ece

More to come…