Engineers worked
to fix a leaky hydraulic seal on NASA's space shuttle Discovery Wednesday as
the agency weighs a possible delay for the spacecraft's planned October launch.
Discovery
was slated to leave its hangar and move to the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building
(VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today to be attached to its
external tank and rocket boosters. But a leak in one of four hydraulic seals on
the orbiter's right
main landing gear strut prompted mission managers to hold that move and
await repairs.
"We're
going to replace all four seals," Allard Beutel, a NASA spokesperson at
KSC, told SPACE.com Wednesday. "They expect to have that wrapped up
today."
Commanded
by veteran
shuttle flyer Pamela Melroy, Discovery's STS-120 mission is slated to
launch Oct. 23 to deliver a vital
connecting node to the International Space Station (ISS). Mission managers
are keeping a close watch on Discovery's hydraulic seal repairs to determine
whether the extra work will delay the planned launch by a few days.
NASA detected
the leak Thursday in a strut that serves as a shock absorber during landings.
Engineers had to remove the right main landing gear tires, wheels and brakes to
replace the faulty seal and three others with the help of contractor BF
Goodrich, Beutel said.
Tests to
ensure the new seals are in proper working order could begin as early as
Thursday, with Discovery's move into the 52-story VAB at NASA's Cape Canaveral
spaceport slated for sometime next week, the space agency said.
NASA has
five days of reserve time in its schedule to ready Discovery for the planned
14-day STS-120 mission. Once the orbiter moves into the VAB, it traditionally
takes about a week for shuttle workers to attach the vehicle to its boosters
and fuel tank for transport to the launch pad.
While a slight
launch delay is possible for Discovery, NASA officials remain optimistic that
the seal repairs will be completed in time for an Oct. 23 liftoff.
"It's
still absolutely a possibility given the way the work is proceeding," Beutel
said.
Melroy and
her six STS-120 crewmates plan to perform five spacewalks at the ISS to install
the new connecting node and relocate an old solar array segment to station's port-most
edge. The new node, dubbed Harmony, will serve as the attachment point for
future international laboratories at the space station.
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