Columbia sits enclosed within work platforms at Palmdale. When it will leave has not been decided. Photo: Spaceflight Now

Work on Columbia is scheduled to finish in about five months with the shuttle rolling out of the plant on September 9. However, NASA is looking at additional wiring tests that could extend the Palmdale visit a few more weeks.

Space agency engineers are thinking about using older wiring currently inside Columbia for a round of laboratory exams. The tests would see how the more worn wires behave when they short.

NASA's current testing only focuses on new wiring.

"We want to gather more information on the older wiring," NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said.

If some wire were cut out of Columbia it would have to be replaced, adding to the work by the Palmdale team.

Once back at Kennedy Space Center, workers will begin readying Columbia for its next voyage into space, currently scheduled for late February 2001. That planned 16-day mission will carry a commercial Spacehab module in the payload bay where astronauts can conduct experiments in the weightless environment of space.

After Columbia leaves Palmdale, the Boeing employees will shift to other projects until shuttle Discovery arrives late next summer for its next overhaul.