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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."

7 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Let's give it up already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's stop messing around with this piece of shit and develop something wonderful through international cooperation. Just like in The Contact.

  2. Was I the only one who... by shreevatsa · · Score: 5, Funny

    read this as "NASA Ponders Postponing Lunch until July?

  3. Sensors by tahii · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apparenly the delay is due to a sensor failure that occured during tank testing. The delay will assist with getting a few other things sorted too, like cleaning up a hydraulic fluid spill.

    NasaSpaceFlight.com has a nice write-up about it.

  4. NASA needs some balls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "If we die, do not mourn for us. This is a risky business we're in, and we accept those risks. The space program is too valuable to this country to be halted for too long if a disaster should ever happen."

    Gus Grissom

  5. Re:Better Use for the Shuttle Money by FTL · · Score: 5, Interesting
    > They could stop the shuttle program and use the money in the few years in between now and when the new man-rated launch-vehicle comes out to seed promising space initiatives by private firms. I'm sure this would more than pay for itself.

    The Shuttle is the only vehicle capable of completing the International Space Station. If you stop flying the shuttle right now, the Space Station would be doomed. That's billions of dollars worth of hardware wasted.

    Don't care about ISS? Then what about other countries? America convinced Canada, Brazil, most of Europe, Japan and Russia to pool its resources and focus on building the space station. Pull out now, and you will NEVER be trusted again. Even if ISS isn't worth the price of the shuttle, pulling a multi-billion dollar fraud on the rest of the space-faring world will hurt America for decades to come.

    Oh yeah, and without the shuttle, there's no Hubble. Nasa's new administrator is still thinking about the pros and cons of sending a shuttle up to fix it.

    No, the mature thing to do is to hurry up and finish the space station, then drop the shuttle. Which is exactly what Nasa is planning.

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  6. Re:How about channelling the money by scharman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Come on, think of the big picture here. I know being simplistic and small-minded is the catch-phrase of our "new generation". But what if they said this 40 years ago? Why even go to space? Look at all of the technologies we have developed whilst trying to get there. We would not be able to live without half of these advances! (Especially the freeze dried food).

    More importantly, compare $3.1B against:
    (a) amount spent on pizzas in the US
    (b) amount spent on election campaigns
    (c) amount paid to actors for acting?

    If you are going to be fair, then be fair. Talk about it being a capitalist world, and that we only give money for food at all because we are:
    (a) making ourselves look better on the world stage
    (b) appeasing that guilty little bit of ourselves

    Good luck NASA! You guys will be the ones that get us off the planet one day.

  7. 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...