James Silviano NASA examines the range safety cable between the external tank and solid rocket boosters looks on.

James Silviano (bottom), NASA, examines the range safety cable between the external tank and solid rocket boosters (SRB) on Space Shuttle Discovery, while Terry Kent (above), United Space Alliance, looks on. The cable, which relays a redundant emergency destruction signal between the SRBs in the unlikely event of a contingency, was damaged during close-out operations and is being replaced. Discovery's processing schedule leads to a target launch date of Dec. 6