NASA delayed the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour yesterday because of a hydrogen gas leak similar to one that cropped up three months ago.
The countdown was halted shortly after midnight, about two-and-a-half hours into the fueling of the external tank and less than seven hours before the planned launch. The astronauts had not yet suited up.
Mission managers planned to meet later yesterday to decide when to try another launch attempt for the space station construction mission.
The leak is similar to one the space agency faced in March during the launch countdown of the Discovery.
That flight ended up being delayed by four days because of the leak and forced NASA to shorten the shuttle’s flight by a day and eliminate a space walk.
“It has a similar signature to what happened in March,” NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said.
The launch team planned to drain the external fuel tank while trying to figure out what went wrong.
In March, the leak occurred where a vent line hooks up to the tank. The hookup was replaced along with some seals and the seepage stopped.
NASA is up against a tight deadline. The shuttle must lift off by tomorrow, otherwise it has to get in line behind a moon-bound spacecraft that’s due to rocket away on Wednesday. And if the shuttle isn’t flying by June 20, it will have to wait until the middle of next month because of unfavorable sun angles that would make the ship too hot while docked at the international space station.
During the 16-day mission, the Endeavour and its crew of seven were supposed to deliver the final segment of Japan’s huge space station lab, along with some spare parts for the orbiting outpost and more than 270kg of food for the six men living there.
When the shuttle was to have pulled up, there would have been 13 people together in orbit for the first time.
Of the seven shuttle astronauts, only one is a woman, a Canadian.
The rest of the crew are male US citizens.
On board the space station the crew is more international. The six occupants, all men, represent Belgium, Canada, Japan and Russia, as well as the US.
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