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Glitch Delays Atlantis Shuttle Launch
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Sep 06, 2006 NASA will postpone the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis from Thursday to Friday to solve an electrical problem, a spokesman for the US space agency said. "The mission management team has decided to postpone another 24 hours a launch and come back tomorrow to work at this problem," said National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Dean Acosta, giving no further details. Earlier Wednesday a NASA spokesman said that Atlantis's launch had been delayed until Thursday because one of the three fuel cells providing electricity to the shuttle had malfunctioned. A failure to launch this week could delay the Atlantis mission until late October. NASA officials took the new launch delay in stride, even though they had been optimistic for a Wednesday launch after the weather service gave a dramatically more favorable forecast one week after Tropical Storm Ernesto swept across Florida. The US space agency is eager to launch Atlantis on the first ISS construction mission in nearly four years, following the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster, which shifted the focus to improving flight safety. The agency plans to undertake 16 shuttle missions to complete the complex assembly of the half-finished space station by 2010, when the three-shuttle fleet is set to retire. After the Space Shuttle Discovery returned safely in July from a second post-Columbia mission aimed at improving safety, NASA declared it was ready to resume construction of the ISS, which is central to US ambitions to fly humans to Mars. Atlantis will bring a new 16-tonne segment with two huge solar panels that will double the station's ability to produce power from sunlight and ultimately provide a quarter of the completed ISS's power. Three lengthy spacewalks are planned to install the solar arrays, which are 73 meters (240 feet) long when unfurled. Officials said it will be the most complex work ever undertaken at the nearly eight-year-old space station and that the next few missions will only get harder. During their 11-day mission, the six shuttle astronauts will also use a robotic arm to scan the orbiter's heat shield for potential damage from debris falling off the external fuel tank during liftoff. The safety check has become routine since Columbia was struck by foam that peeled off from its fuel tank during liftoff, eventually causing the shuttle to disintegrate as it returned to Earth in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board. The concern over debris has prompted NASA to favor daytime launches, which allow it to take pictures of the liftoff to detect any foam loss. The requirement limits the available launch dates, and if Atlantis does not fly this week, it will not be able to launch until October 26 or 27. But shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said he had asked engineers and safety officials to review the daylight launch requirement. If the restriction is lifted, the shuttle could schedule launch attempts in late September or early October, he said.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com
NASA Vodcasts Deliver Launches To Portable Media Players
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Sep 07, 2006For the first time, NASA is making space shuttle launch footage available to anyone who has a portable media player with video capability. A video podcast, or "vodcast," of the liftoff of Space Shuttle Atlantis for the STS-115 mission will be available to subscribers. Atlantis is set to launch at 4:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 27 from the Kennedy Space Center. |
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