What was the cause for the shuttle launch to be derailed?”
After a lengthy fueling delay because of stormy weather, launch of the shuttle Endeavour on a space station mission was scrubbed Wednesday when a presumably repaired hydrogen vent line umbilical began leaking potentially dangerous vapor for the second launch try in a row. Given the apparent severity of the problem and the planned launch of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on Thursday or Friday atop an Atlas 5 rocket, Endeavour will be grounded until at least July 11 when the next shuttle/space station launch window opens. “We’ve got to step back and try to understand this problem, and we will do that,” said LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA’s Mission Management Team. “It’s going to take us a little time…The team will be relentless in terms of trying to go understand what’s going on with this system. We’ll fix it and we’ll move forward once we have determined we can get in a safe configuration to go fly.” Space shuttle Endeavour atop launch pad 39A early Wednesday. (Credit: NASA TV)The
After a lengthy fueling delay because of stormy weather, launch of the shuttle Endeavour on a space station mission was scrubbed Wednesday when a presumably repaired hydrogen vent line umbilical began leaking potentially dangerous vapor for the second launch try in a row. Given the apparent severity of the problem and the planned launch of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on Thursday or Friday atop an Atlas 5 rocket, Endeavour will be grounded until at least July 11 when the next shuttle/space station launch window opens.
