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Launch of Space Infrared Telescope Facility Delayed
By Kelly Young
FLORIDA TODAY
posted: 12:00 pm ET
20 April 2003
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Untitled CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA's last Great Observatory will be stuck on the ground for a few more months. The space agency delayed the April 27 launch of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility on a Delta 2 Heavy rocket until no earlier than mid-August from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A problem with a solid fueled booster on the rocket caused the delay. There wasn't enough time to replace the booster and get another rocket assembled on that same pad in time to launch the last of the twin Mars Exploration Rovers on June 25. "They can't do it and still support the launch of MER-B," Kennedy Space Center spokesman George Diller said. The Mars rovers are on a tighter schedule because of the way Earth and Mars are lined up. Engineers did not understand a problem with one of SIRTF's Delta 2 rocket boosters. A nozzle on one of the rocket's nine detachable boosters began coming apart -- a process known as delamination. Essentially, there were several places where the adhesive bonds broke down between layers of the carbon material. There was concern the fiery exhaust could have burned through a weak spot. Diller called it a "precautionary replacement." The entire rocket will be taken apart on its launch pad and the booster will be sent back to its manufacturer, Alliant Techsystems. When SIRTF gets to space, it will study the universe's infrared light. NASA's next launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will be the GALEX spacecraft, designed to study the history of star formation and tentatively slated for an 8 a.m. April 28 launch on a Pegasus rocket from a high-flying converted airliner. Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright 2001 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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