Discovery Launch Delayed Due To Engine Issue

An anonymous reader writes "The launch of Space Shuttle Discovery was originally slated for February 12th, has now been postponed to February 19th — at the earliest. The change of launch dates were decided by NASA managers during a review of the shuttle's flow control valve in the main engine. The new date is pending further analysis of the flow control valve and everything checking out okay for pre-flight tests. Discovery's STS-119 14-day mission will deliver the station's fourth and final set of solar arrays, completing the orbiting laboratory's truss, or backbone. The arrays will provide the electricity to fully power science experiments and support the station's expanded crew of six in May."

Comments

Re:Says who?

[rufey]

The vibration problem appears to have been caused by the engines being "steerable" and having a hard time finding their "sweet spot", so they kept adjusting where they were pointing during the firing.

More information here.

Re:The thing's been out of warranty...

[camperdave]

They are buying new stuff: The Ares I and V. Well, they are technically supposed to be based on the shuttle system, but for all intents and purposes they are completely new spacecraft. The Ares I is an oversized SRB, but with different fuel and different flight characteristics. The only thing they have salvaged is the ignitor. The Ares V uses different SRBs, a wider external tank, and different engines. It will be seven or more years before they start producing this rocket. With Ares as the launch platform, there will be a 5-7 year gap between end of shuttle and start of Ares. Too long to maintain people's jobs.

Direct on the other hand, will use standard "off the shelf" SRBs, will use current external tank manufacturing processes, will use much of the same systems as the shuttle. There will be huge numbers of jobs saved. Plus, the gap between end of shuttle and first Jupiter launch is only two years. Short enough on its own, but if NASA also delayed the shuttle retirement date, the gap could be reduced to zero.