Work Started on Rockets for Vandenberg Shuttle Flights

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE — Engineers have started assembling solid-fuel booster rockets at the Air Force’s West Coast shuttle launch pad in tests to clear the way for eventual shuttle flights from California, officials said Friday.

This fall, NASA plans to ship the shuttle Columbia to Vandenberg, where it will be wedded to the boosters and an external fuel tank for launch pad “validation” tests.

A NASA spokesman said engineers have started “stacking” one of two boosters at the launch pad. The exercise is not related to continuing work to redesign and test shuttle booster rockets in the wake of the Challenger disaster.

Columbia tentatively is scheduled to be flown from Cape Canaveral to Vandenberg atop a NASA transport jet in October, but officials expect delays in the program.

In any case, the Air Force has announced that the $3.3-billion California shuttle launch facility will not be used until at least 1992 because of the Challenger accident and the need to fully employ the remaining three shuttles in the NASA fleet with launches from Florida.

The booster segments being assembled at the pad at Vandenberg use “filament-wound cases” instead of the steel cases used by shuttles launched from Florida.

The lighter “composite” booster casings are required for California launches to allow the shuttle to carry heavy spy satellites into orbit around Earth’s poles. But safety issues raised during the course of the investigation into the Challenger accident could force design changes.

Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after launch Jan. 28.