NATION : NASA Clear to Launch Ulysses
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA managers and a federal judge cleared the shuttle Discovery for fueling today and for takeoff Saturday to launch the nuclear-powered Ulysses probe on a voyage over the uncharted poles of the sun.
“From where we sit right now, the one remaining question . . . is will the weather cooperate? But we’re ready to go,” said William Lenoir, chief of NASA’s manned space program.
About 20 anti-nuclear activists demonstrated today at the Kennedy Space Center to protest the launch. But a federal judge in Washington refused to block the launch, clearing Discovery for takeoff at 4:35 a.m. PDT Saturday to end a five-month hiatus in shuttle flights.
Also today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the space shuttle Atlantis does not appear to have suffered major damage from a 70-pound beam that banged the ship’s cramped engine room Wednesday.
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