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Daunting technical problem mars a good year for NASA
Cape Canaveral, Florida (AFP) Dec 10, 2007 A technical problem that has pushed back the launch of the Atlantis until January broke NASA's good track record this year of three successful shuttle launches. The Atlantis' delay is significant since its crew of seven, including a German and a French astronaut, were expected to install the European Columbus laboratory on the orbiting International Space Station. Some 750 people were invited to witness the Atlantis' blastoff from Cape Canaveral -- at a cost to NASA one source put at two million dollars -- on a long-awaited mission of great significance for the European Space Agency. False readings from four sensors on the Atlantis' external hydrogen fuel tank delayed the Atlantis launch -- initially scheduled for Thursday -- four times before NASA finally decided Sunday to postpone it until January 2. The Atlantis launch window for this month would have ended December 13. The launch was first delayed when two of the four sensors failed after the external tank was filled with fuel for Thursday's launch. Another sensor failed when the tanks were emptied and on Sunday, only one sensor worked properly. "The mission management team has decided to postpone the launch until January 2 at the earliest," NASA spokesman Allard Beutel finally said.
` The gauges tell the shuttle's onboard computer when the external tankis almost empty, prompting the shuttle's three cryogenic engines to shut down as orbit is achieved. If the engines keep running without fuel, they explode. A similar gauge problem delayed the Discovery's launch for 13 days in 2005. The shuttle was taken back to its hangar and its external fuel tank replaced. "We have encountered a problem we thought we had solved," shuttle mission manager Wayne Hale said earlier this week after the difficulties first surfaced. "We have done an untold number of engineering tests to try to find the root cause of this electrical failure that sometimes comes and sometimes doesn't come ... we examine every piece of the system," he added. "As a program manager I find this extremely frustrating." NASA will resume its investigation of the gauge problem without removing the Atlantis from its launch pad, so as to have it ready for its January 2 launch. "Our hope is that we can go do some trouble-shooting and nail down what part of the system the failure might be in," said Mission Management Team chief LeRoy Cain. He said the external tank was partially fueled early Sunday, already providing engineers with valuable data that could help locate the problem. The Atlantis is due to fly on an 11-day mission to deliver the Columbus laboratory to the ISS. The crew includes two European Space Agency astronauts -- Hans Schlegel of Germany and Frenchman Leopold Eyharts. Eyharts was scheduled to stay on the ISS for two and a half months to prepare Columbus for future scientific work. Until now, only the United States and Russia have had their own laboratories at the ISS. With Columbus, Europe hopes to become an integral part of the only functioning orbital outpost. Its experiments with gravity are considered essential to prepare humans for long-term life and work in space, and journeys to Mars and beyond. Bill Gerstenmeyer, NASA's associate director for space operations, played down the impact of the lengthy Atlantis delay on next year's shuttle launches, some of the last before the fleet's scheduled retirement in 2010. "We are all a little bit disappointed we did not to get to see a launch today," Gerstenmeyer told a news conference. But he added: "If you look at what this means moving into January from the big-picture standpoint, it's not that big an impact to us overall, it won't impact the next mission, the February flight." Initially it had been planned to fly the Columbus to the ISS at the end of 2004. But the tragic end of the shuttle Columbia in February 2003, which disintegrated over Texas in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts, grounded the three remaining shuttle orbiters for two years. That in turn delayed the laboratory's launch. Columbus will be controlled from the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, close to Munich. In all, 10 European countries are participating in the program with Germany by far the biggest contributor. The laboratory will allow astronauts to conduct hundreds of experiments a year, notably in areas of biotechnology, medicine, materials and fluids. Related Links Shuttle at NASA Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com
NASA pushes shuttle launch into 2008
Cape Canaveral, Florida (AFP) Dec 9, 2007NASA Sunday postponed its launch of the shuttle Atlantis until early 2008 after technical problems scuppered the planned delivery of a European laboratory to the International Space Station. |
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