The Nation - News from Aug. 17, 1988

Technicians at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida set up a work camp inside the shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay for the work of sealing a small gas leak found a month ago in a steering engine compartment. After opening the 60-foot-long cargo bay doors, they erected a tent-like structure over the rear bulkhead to prevent debris from getting into the rest of the bay or into a nearby enclosure where a communications satellite is stored. Today the technicians will cut holes through the rear bulkhead and the engine compartment wall to gain access to a seal leaking nitrogen tetroxide gas from a vent line. Engineers continued trouble-shooting the only fault found in a test firing of the three main engines last week--hydrogen gas detected where lines join the shuttle with its external fuel tank.