From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npois!alice!sjb
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Title: Ooops!  Doors Still Not Closed
Article-I.D.: alice.749
Posted: Thu Jul  1 07:44:02 1982
Received: Fri Jul  2 01:46:26 1982

The doors of the cargo bay are still not closed all the way,
as had been reported earlier.  The problem came when the belly
of the ship was exposed to the extreme heat of the sun while
the top was exposed to the deep cold of space (all these
adjectives!)  This caused the edge of one door to warp slightly,
preventing the latched that hold the doors closed from hooking
together.  As with the last flight, the astronauts put the ship
in top-side-toward-sun format before going to bed; the night
of heat is expected to alleviate the problem.  If not, they
are prepare to put on pressure suits and take a little space
walk to fix the problem manually.  It is possible to land with
the doors open, but it is likened to doing so in a jet plane;
they'd rather not.  It would unbalance the aerodynamics of the
craft (then a rock) and also expose the inside to the heat of reentry.