CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA finished up a weekend's worth of extra inspections and launch pad work early Monday, clearing the way for the planned launch this Saturday of Space Shuttle Discovery, but sister ship Endeavour now may face a launch delay.
The planned January 13 launch of shuttle Endeavour will likely be delayed so technicians can replace a suspect engine in Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) vehicle assembly building. The launch date is expected to slip a few days.
Senior NASA managers early Monday decided to press ahead with plans to launch Discovery and its seven-member crew at 12:13 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday on its mission to repair the $3 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
The launch date was in doubt over the weekend as NASA ordered additional inspections to an ordnance wire that plays a key role at ignition of one of the shuttles twin solid rocket boosters. The wire carries a signal to set off small explosives, which purposely fracture large bolts that hold the booster to its mobile launcher platform.
NASA ordered additional inspections to the wire when it could not be determined from launch processing paperwork if it had been properly installed and inspected at KSC launch pad 39-B, where Discovery is being readied for flight.
The extra inspections and associated work, however, were wrapped up over the weekend and senior NASA managers determined there would be no need to further postpone the oft-delayed Hubble rescue mission.
"The bottom line is that the launch will remain scheduled for December 11," said KSC spokesman Bruce Buckingham. "When it all came down to it, the extra time we had built into the schedule for a December 11 launch was enough to absorb the extra work."
Discoverys seven astronauts, as a result, will fly to KSC late Monday. A three-day launch countdown is scheduled to begin at 4:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.
NASA had hoped to launch the Hubble rescue mission October 14 but fleet-wide wiring inspections and a series of other problems have created a string of frustrating launch delays for Discovery and its telescope repair crew. The flagship observatory now is flying idle after a science-stopping systems failure in late November.
NASAs next launch after the Hubble mission now faces a potential delay. Managers ordered the replacement of one of its three liquid-fueled main engines.
NASA engineers recently found flaws in the main combustion chamber of a test engine. The flaws were traced back to a testing procedure that also had been employed on one of Endeavours engines. Playing it safe, NASA managers ordered the replacement of Endeavours suspect engine as a precaution.
Endeavour had been scheduled to launch pad 39-A from KSCs 52-story assembly building on Tuesday. That 3.5-mile trip, however, is being delayed until December 13 so technicians can replace the suspect engine.
Endeavour and its astronaut crew still are officially scheduled to launch January 13 on a mission to make a radar map of Earth.
advertisement
