Space Shuttle Launch Delayed Until July

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Tuesday March 14, 2006 @02:11PM from the another-in-a-long-line-of-dissapointments dept.

DarkNemesis618 writes "NASA decided on Tuesday to delay the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery until July, squashing all hopes that it would launch in May. The external fuel tank is again the culprit, but this time it's not the foam. One of the four fuel sensors in the fuel tank that control when the space shuttle's main engines cut off was discovered to be faulty. This delay does however, give NASA the time it needs to decide what to do about the small crack found on the robotic arm. Over a week ago, a worker bumped the arm leaving a small crack in it. The arm is key to this next mission as the cameras and lasers used to inspect the shuttle for damage are mounted on the robotic arm. All things aside, NASA engineers are saying that the next possible launch date will be July 1st."

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Its Energy by Freaky+Spook · 2006-03-14 15:11 · Score: -1, Offtopic

It takes a lot of energy to get into space, unfortunatly the engery that gets the shuttle into space is running out so governments are spending much more money on fighting over the last scraps of it.

Until there is a real motivation to go to space again, Say China announcing plans for a nuclear powered space station which could fuel another space race.

Tourism will help push us into space, with the rising costs of oil its going to cause a lot of problems getting there.
If Airlines are going broke everwhere, keeping a space tourism business going would be extremly high risk.