CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Tests
revealed that Endeavour's once-puzzling crew cabin
leak was caused by small piece of debris, NASA officials said today during a
mission status briefing at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
After a week of hunting
for the
leak aboard the newly retrofitted space shuttle, the valve was replaced and
tested.
"We found a tiny
piece of debris in the sealing surface, which was causing that slight leak
rate. There's nothing systemic wrong with any of the valves," said NASA
test director Steve Payne, adding that removing the grit fixed the valve.
"We just finished a
leak check ... early this morning, and it is very, very tight," Payne said
of Endeavour's crew cabin.
Countdown starts tonight
The STS-118 launch
countdown is expected to begin tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT). If all goes
according to plan, Endeavour and its seven-person crew will lift off from Pad
39A on Wednesday at approximately 6:36 p.m. EDT (2236 GMT).
So far, said NASA's
shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters, the forecast is looking favorable for
launch, considering the turbulent seasonal conditions.
"We have 30 percent
chance of KSC weather prohibiting launch," Winters
said, which an eastern weather system is mainly responsible for. "We could
get some isolated showers and ... some anvil [clouds] coming in from over the Gulf Stream."
Crew primed
Led by
commander and veteran astronaut Scott
Kelly, the seven-person STS-118
crew will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) two days after
launch. Once there, astronauts will begin an 11-to-14 day mission to further
assemble the space laboratory as well prepare it for future construction.
"There's
a little bit of assembly, there's some re-supply, there's some repairs and
there are some high-visibility education and public affairs events," said
Matt Abbott, NASA's lead STS-118 shuttle flight director, of the mission last
month. "It's a little bit of everything."
Barbara
Morgan, NASA's teacher-turned-astronaut,
will be part of Endeavour's crew delivering a 4,010-pound (1,820-kilogram)
girder spacer for the Starboard-5 (S5) truss segment of the ISS. The piece will
add another element to the space station's growing backbone and make way for
its future expansion, but the shuttle's biggest haul will be 5,000 pounds
(2,268 kilograms) of fresh cargo to re-supply the ISS.
NASA officials
said today that the crew is continuing to train,
review flight plans and undergo equipment and personal checks in preparation
for launch.
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