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NASA Ponders Postponing Launch until July

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the wait-for-it dept.

BitFluid writes "According to Sun-Sentinel.com, NASA is considering postponing its Return to Flight shuttle launch because of 'ongoing concern about possible ice buildup on a liquid oxygen propellant line.' Apparently, that stuff turns into debris on launch, a risk they need time to investigate. If delayed, the target launch window becomes July 13 through July 31."

4 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How about channelling the money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why don't you take the money you're spending on bandwidth and spend it again on charities that help third world countries? The moral position you're arguing in favor of would require it.

    Scientific research is a necessity to improve the quality of life for everyone on the planet. Human space flight is an important avenue for scientific research.

    By the way, for the record, the 2003 US budget for food aid was $2.5B; for the Shuttle, the budget was $3.1B.

  2. Aero News Net Coverage by LakeSolon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's ANN's coverage of the story.

    If you're interested in this and similar sort of news, ANN is a great daily news site you should probably check out.

    ~Lake

  3. Re:Uh, like by wyvernfink · · Score: 5, Informative
    Spray de-icer on it?
    LOX has a boiling temperature of -183 degC, and the LOX line can be expected to be at approximately the same temperature. De-icer lowers the freezing temperature of water, but it doesn't lower it that much.
    Wrap it in an insulator?
    Any insulator would have to be flight-qualified with assurance that none could shed during ascent. If the insulation were to fall off, it could impact the shuttle and cause damage, or worse, allow ice formation.
    Blow warm dry air over it?
    This requires both a source of warm, dry air and the proper ducting to get it where it needs to be. This adds weight to the vehicle and has the potential to change the aerodynamics of the vehicle.

    The end result is that low-tech solutions can (and often do) result in additional complexities for the vehicle. I mean, it's not like we're dealing with the most complex machine ever built or anything...

  4. Re:Ice... by i41Overlord · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Challenger was partially caused by ice and freezing. So the solution was to use insulation (basically a light-weight spray on that is similar to styrofoam). Sadly the Columbia was hit by the same insulation.

    Challenger's problem was with the O-rings sealing in the solid rocket boosters. They did not use foam to fix this.

    Columbia was damaged by foam that fell off the main fuel tank, which doesn't have any connection at all to Challenger's problem.