Wayne Hale
Wayne Hale
N. Wayne Hale Jr.is a former NASA engineer. Previously a flight director and space shuttle program manager, Hale served as NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Strategic Partnerships prior to his retirement on July 31, 2010...
action blanket decided determined discovery released risk
We have released Discovery to reenter, ... We have decided not to take any action on the thermal blanket because we have determined it is a negligible risk at this time.
action blanket cleared concern decided discovery represents
We have cleared Discovery to re-enter and we have decided not to take any action on the thermal blanket because we think that it represents negligible concern at this time.
accelerate believe case decided eliminate fairly flight folks hazard large might piece ramp ready remove strong third
In the long run, we have decided we would like to remove this fairly large piece of foam, just eliminate the hazard that it might cause. We think we have a very strong case to be ready to take that ramp off by the third flight tank. Some folks believe we can accelerate that and potentially even remove it for the STS-121 tank.
launch
we would not in any conceivable way be able to launch before Saturday.
clear everybody guys launch next ought talk
You guys ought to be aware, and we have got to make it clear to everybody we talk to, when we launch the next flight, there is still going to be foam come off the tank.
We are under no thought of delaying launch.
evening good kennedy landing looking monday seems space
Everything seems to be looking very good for a landing Monday evening at the Kennedy Space Center.
hardware paying playing talking
We were playing the odds. The hardware was talking to us, and we were not paying attention.
confident flights launch sure three until
We will not launch until we are sure we can do it safely. But if we launch by July, we are confident we can still get three flights up this year.
change fly foremost prudent wish worked
We wish it had worked out differently, but it's first and foremost that we fly safely. It was prudent to change these sensors out.
ahead amount proceed prove safe until work
We have a considerable amount of work ahead of us. We won't proceed until we've done the work to prove that it's safe to fly.
parts
We don't want the parts to come apart.
bigger reaction seen
My immediate, knee-jerk reaction was that we can live with this, ... On the other hand, this is bigger than we've seen before.
appears discovery good news none
None of the things I showed you are satisfactory. The good news is that the orbiter Discovery appears to be in good shape.