This is the second time in less than a week that the same hitch has upset the space agency’s plans and the launch attempt has been scrubbed.
Mike Leinbach, a shuttle launch director revealed, “The leak was way out of spec again and we were just not comfortable with pressing on. We will put together a more detailed trouble shooting plan.”
Launch put off till July 11
The shuttle’s next launch attempt is planned for July 11, which essentially means that NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will blast off in the skies on Thursday or Friday atop an Atlas 5 rocket.
NASA was in a fix and had to decide on which mission to defer as both had a clash in dates. Endeavour’s leakage problem has settled the dilemma automatically.
The July 11 rescheduling assumes that the engineers would be able to fix the umbilical plate problem, resulting in the leakage, in time. LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said, "We've got to step back and try to understand this problem and we will do that. It's going to take us a little time.”
He assured that the team would work unremittingly to understand the entire system and correct it, “We'll fix it and we'll move forward once we have determined we can get in a safe configuration to go fly."
The mission
Endeavour’s 16-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) would entail five space walks and the task of completing the assembly of the $1 billion Japanese Kibo research facility. Space station flight engineer Timothy Kopra would replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and park himself at the ISS at the end of the mission.
"OK, it is great that this international crew will continue," Wakata said from abroad ISS, "Another month for me!"
Post new comment