NASA's shuttle
Endeavour remains on track for its planned launch next week after engineers
pinned down the source of a leak inside the orbiter's crew cabin, the space
agency said Wednesday.
Shuttle
workers had been tracing the elusive
leak since the weekend as they readied Endeavour for its planned Aug. 7
launch from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral,
Florida.
"The
problem has been traced to one of two positive pressure relief valves which
assure that the crew cabin does not become over-pressurized," said George
Diller, a NASA spokesperson at KSC, in a status update.
Engineers
will swap out the faulty valve with a working one taken from Endeavour's sister
ship Atlantis during a fix that is expected to be complete by Thursday.
"There is
no impact to the space shuttle's Aug. 7 launch date," Diller said of the
repair.
Mission
managers also opted not to replace thermostats in one of Endeavour's auxiliary
power units found to be returning off-nominal signals, NASA officials said. The
glitch is not violating operational specifications and is understood by
engineers, they added.
Endeavour's
seven STS-118 astronauts are due to arrive at the launch site Friday, with the planned
space shot's countdown set to begin at 9:00 p.m. EDT (0100 Aug. 5 GMT). Commanded
by veteran shuttle flyer Scott Kelly, Endeavour's STS-118 mission will deliver
a fresh load of cargo, spare parts and a new piece of starboard-side truss to
the International Space Station.
The
up-to-14 day mission will also mark the first flight for educator
astronaut Barbara Morgan, an Idaho schoolteacher who first began astronaut
training in 1985 as the backup for high school teacher Christa McAuliffe during
NASA's Teacher in Space Program. McAuliffe and six NASA astronauts later died in
January 1986 when their space
shuttle Challenger broke apart just after launch.
Endeavour's
STS-118 mission will mark NASA's second of up to four shuttle flights planned
for this year.
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