NASA Cautions Shuttle on Drag Chute

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. —  NASA warned Discovery’s astronauts that they could hit the runway hard today if the space shuttle’s drag chute inadvertently pops open because of a missing compartment door.

The door dropped off the shuttle four seconds before it lifted off last week with Sen. John Glenn and six other crew members.

The chute normally is used to slow the shuttle after its wheels touch down, but it is not considered essential equipment.

NASA said the chute could make for a “pretty hard” landing only if it opens during the shuttle’s final approach and the crew cannot jettison it.

The space agency stressed that this is extremely unlikely. Nonetheless, Mission Control briefed commander Curtis L. Brown Jr. and his co-pilot on what to expect and what to do if that happens.

“We do think it will be a normal entry and none of the things will happen about the drag chute,” Mission Control assured Brown.

That wasn’t the only potential problem: NASA aimed for a 9:06 a.m. PST landing at Cape Canaveral but also sent crews out to the backup site in California because of gathering clouds in today’s forecast.

Researchers involved in Glenn’s geriatric studies would prefer a Cape Canaveral landing. The chief medical investigators were standing by at Kennedy Space Center to whisk the 77-year-old Glenn into a clinic for testing.

The lab at Edwards Air Force Base in California isn’t as well-equipped. A posture test, for instance, would have to be scrapped.

What’s more, Glenn’s wife, Annie, and their two children and two grandsons were to be at Cape Canaveral too, awaiting his return after nine days in orbit.

During a news conference Friday, flight director Linda Ham said engineers feel confident the drag chute will remain in place during Discovery’s descent, even though the drag-chute door is missing.

If the chute opens below an altitude of 150 feet and could not be ejected in the 10 to 20 seconds before touchdown, “you’d land pretty hard,” Ham said. “Hard enough probably to break the orbiter.”