The Nation - News from July 29, 1988

Space shuttle engineers recommended that cutting a hole through Discovery’s cargo bay would be the best and quickest way to fix a small gas leak, but a final decision will not be made until after a test-firing of the spaceship’s engines. The recommended repair, which would be done on the launch pad, would take about two weeks and slip the first post-Challenger launch into late September. The alternative would be to take Discovery back to a hangar, which could postpone the flight to as late as sometime in November.