CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A leaking oxygen system inside shuttle Endeavour forced NASA late Sunday to delay launch of its crew rotation and assembly mission to the International Space Station until at least Nov. 18.
"It sure is disappointing," Ron Dittemore, NASA's shuttle program director, said after Monday's launch attempt was scrubbed.
The standard three-day countdown had gone very well up to and including loading the shuttle's external tank with its supercold propellant Sunday afternoon, officials said.
However, soon after valves were opened to allow oxygen to begin flowing into Endeavour's crew cabin -- part of routine pre-launch work -- the Kennedy Space Center launch team noticed the unwanted presence of oxygen inside the shuttle's cargo bay.
The oxygen in this case is used by the crewmembers to breathe, not only in the multi-level crew cabin but within their bright orange suits worn during launch and landing.
Troubleshooting soon determined the source of the problem: leaking plumbing under the floor of Endeavour's cargo bay near the forward bulkhead that makes up the rear wall of the crew cabin.
But pre-launch checks on the suspect line in the orbiter's hangar, and a review of the system's performance during Endeavour's most recent mission in June, showed there should be no reason for this relatively simple hardware to be faulty."It's like this leak just appeared out of the blue," Dittemore said. "And knowing that you still have the shake, rattle and roll to go through to get to orbit caused us to pause and want to understand it better."
Unwilling to continue the countdown, the launch was scrubbed about 9:45 p.m. EST Sunday (0245 GMT Monday) just after Endeavour STS-113 commander Jim Wetherbee had boarded the spaceplane.
"I'd like to welcome you aboard," NASA launch manager Steve Altemus radioed Wetherbee. "But tonight's not our night. The (Mission Management Team) has declared a scrub as you probably heard up there just now, for a potential leak in the O2 system."
"I know you guys are going to be disappointed but I think we want to give you a healthy vehicle before we cut you loose from the Cape," Altemus said.
"Absolutely, you guys are doing great. Thanks," Wetherbee said.
The leak itself is relatively minor, and the actual repair job might not take more than a couple of hours -- but getting workers to a place where they can perform the task is the time consuming reason why launch is being delayed at least a week.
Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach said he hoped to know more by Wednesday afternoon about what repairs will be needed and how long it would be before the next launch attempt could take place.
"Once we have our hands on the system and have identified where the leak is we'll have a better idea of what it takes to fix that leak," Leinbach said.
Scheduling the next launch could be complicated.
Shuttle Endeavour must wait for the planned Nov. 16 launch of Boeing's inaugural Delta 4 rocket, and possibly squeeze in before a targeted Nov. 22 liftoff of an International Launch Services Atlas 2A.
And then there's Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 28. But NASA officials, past and present, haven't been reluctant to fly on that holiday.
Should Endeavour lift off on Nov. 18, it will land on Nov. 29 -- the day after Thanksgiving -- but Dittemore said he doesn't think that will be a problem for any flight controllers who might otherwise have had travel plans.
"I would expect them to be well fed for landing."
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