The Nation - News from Sept. 2, 1988

With launch just weeks away, the crew of the shuttle Discovery, fighting through a host of make-believe malfunctions, wound up a final flight simulation at the Johnson Space Center in Houston that was cut short by real problems with a computer system. But National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said the majority of the test objectives had been met and that the simulation was a success. NASA hopes to launch Discovery on the first shuttle mission since the Challenger explosion by the end of the month. A firm launch date will not be announced until a formal review scheduled for Sept. 13 and 14 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.