At Last, a Hale Columbia

Revving for action, the once wayward space bus passes a test

"All engines are up and running!" Cheers rose from the ranks of scientists and technicians packed into the Cape Canaveral control center when the word came. Millions of Americans watching on morning television breathed a sigh of relief. Those red and orange flames flaring out from beneath the Columbia space shuttle, the immense cloud of steam created by burning liquid oxygen and hydrogen that drifted out to sea were emblems of success. The long delayed final test firing of Columbia's three main engines had at last gone off without a hitch. Columbia's moment of triumph made it probable that as early as April the shuttle would carry an American into space for the first time since 1975 and take its place as the world's first reusable rocket ship, flying round trips between earth and orbit.

The test-firing countdown had to be pushed back three times last week. First technicians struggled to purge impurities from the fuel-cell pipes, then to replace a faulty electronic module, and finally to wheel a huge service tower away from the launch pad. Explained Launch Director George Page: "This is our very first countdown for the shuttle, and you expect these kinds of problems." Indeed, the shuttle program's problems have become a kind of national headache.

Columbia's launch, originally scheduled for March 1979, was delayed in part for replacement of thousands of heat-resistant tiles, which are attached to its aluminum shell to keep the shuttle from burning up on reentry. It has also been plagued by trouble in its complex engines, which burn fuel at 6,000DEG C, hotter than the boiling point of most metals. The engines deliver a thrust of more than 1 million Ibs. (roughly the power output of 23 Hoover Dams). They pack three times more power for their weight than the J-2 engines that bore the Apollo astronauts aloft. Unlike the J-2s, they are not dropped away after takeoff but are designed to be reused for as many as 55 flights, and to be throttled up and down, producing more or less power as needed.

In earlier test firings, bearings inside the engines splintered, valves stuck, welds melted and engines blew up. One explosion, in July 1979, so badly damaged the rocket stand at the National Space Technology Lab in Bay St. Louis, Miss., that further testing was delayed four months. Last week's firing was the culmination of a series of tests that engineers required to be sure all engine problems had been overcome before Columbia lifts off with its first two astronauts, John Young, 50, and Robert Crippen, 43.

On the assumption of continued success, more than 75 future flights of the shuttle have already been booked. Roughly one-third of them are reserved for the defense establishment, which will use the shuttle, starting in 1983, to launch surveillance satellites. The remaining two-thirds will be devoted to both commerce and scientific endeavor, like the placing of a giant space telescope. American industry will be able to buy cargo space in the shuttle to launch communications satellites and conduct a wide array of experiments in the weightlessness of space in hopes of discovering new ways to produce drugs, crystals and metal alloys. Columbia's cargo hold, 60 ft. long, can carry 65,000 Ibs. Space clients can rent the whole thing for one trip for $35 million. But NASA offers many smaller "getaway specials" from as little as $3,000 for 60 lbs.

NASA is acutely aware that the shuttle will be viewed as a test of U.S. technological skill and that, especially in view of President Reagan's economy program, the level of future Government funding for space efforts may hinge on how well this celestial freighter performs. Recalling the human and mechnical failures that crippled the special "Blue Light" commando unit during the doomed helicopter rescue mission in Iran last year, a NASA official summed up the agency's present resolve. Said he: "We intend not to have a Blue Light failure on our pad."

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