CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASAs next trip to the International Space Station is being pushed back two weeks so that engineers can examine suspect rocket pods on shuttle Atlantis.
Atlantis and a crew of seven had been scheduled to blast off March 21 on a mission to deliver and install the central segment of a station truss that eventually will stretch 356 feet (108 meters) from tip to tip.
Senior NASA managers, however, have decided to inspect one of 12 attachment points for the shuttles twin maneuvering engines, which are housed in pods on either side of the ships vertical stabilizer, or tail fin.
"So that will shove us into April," Kennedy Space Center spokesman Bill Johnson said Friday.
The launch now is scheduled to take place April 4.
The rocket pod issue first cropped up earlier this year during inspections on Columbia.
Large bolts are driven through each of the 12 attach points to secure the so-called Orbital Maneuvering System pods to a shuttle orbiter. They are routed through a bowl-shaped support plate that is attached to the skin of the pods by smaller bolts that measure 5/16th-of-an-inch (0.8-centimeters).
During an inspection of an attachment point on one of Columbias pods, engineers discovered that bolt holes associated with the bowl-shaped support plate were elongated perhaps the result of improper machining.
Consequently, bolts driven through the holes were found to be a bit loose, raising concerns about the structural strength of the attach point.
Located at the aft center of the pod, this particular attachment point bears the brunt of most of the aerodynamic forces encountered during a shuttles thundering climb into orbit. A failure of the attach point during launch could damage structural metal within the pod and potentially have a ripple effect, causing other attach points to weaken or break in flight.
Columbias pods subsequently were repaired, and engineers then set out to determine whether the pods on other shuttles should be examined.
NASA managers this week ordered inspections on one of the pods on Atlantis to see whether the attach point bolt holes are elongated. If so, both of the shuttles rocket pods will be removed and any necessary repairs will be made.
The planned Feb. 14 launch of a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, meanwhile, was officially moved to Feb. 21, but the flight likely will face further delays.
The postponement is meant to give engineers more time to prepare and deliver a spare pointing device to replace a balky unit on NASAs flagship observatory.
More training also will be required to prepare astronauts to perform the spacewalking replacement work. An additional delay of up to five weeks, consequently, might ultimately be called for.
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