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美國國家航空航天局6月30日宣布，將于7月13日進行繼“哥倫比亞”號失事以來的首次航天飛機發射，屆時“發現”號將搭載7名宇航員和一些急需的物資和部件飛往國際空間站。外電報道如下：NASA announced on Thursday it has set July 13 for its first misson of space shuttle launch since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
"Based on a very thorough and very successful flight readiness review, we're currently go for launch of Discovery on July 13," NASA administrator Michael Griffin announced the decision after a two-day meeting of the US space agency to review Discovery's flight readiness. The planned launch window is from July 13 to 31.
"We believe this is the cleanest flight we have ever done," he said, "It's risky; we've done what we can do to minimize that."
Launch window表示“（宇宙飛船的）發射時限，最佳發射時機”，是一段短暫、特定的時間，必須在此期間內發射太空飛船或火箭，以便完成使命或達到預期效果。
據悉，“發現”號航天飛機原定于今年5月中旬升空，但由于發現新的安全隱患而一度推延。
由于發生了“哥倫比亞”號失事慘劇，美國航空航天局為這次時隔兩年之久的發射進行了細致準備，也對可能發生的危險做出了大膽假設。如果“發現”號在發射途中再次遭遇不可修復的損壞，宇航員們將在國際空間站等候“阿特蘭蒂斯”航天飛機前去營救。
（中國日報網站編）
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