NATION IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : NASA Finds Cracks in Shuttle Wings
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
An inspection of the entire space shuttle fleet was ordered at Cape Canaveral, Fla., after NASA found tiny cracks in the heat-resistant covering on the shuttle Atlantis. A Nov. 19 mission for the Defense Department may be postponed, officials said. Engineers found the hairline cracks when they removed seals from the leading edges of the wings during a routine inspection of Atlantis. The seals, made of reinforced carbon fiber, keep the shuttle from melting under the friction-produced heat it encounters during the return to Earth.
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