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Discovery Launch a No-Go, Again

Posted by timothy on from the but-they'll-miss-their-connections dept.

An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from Tech Fragments that says "NASA has yet again postponed the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, which was due to launch today, because of a hydrogen leak in the vent line between the external fuel tank and main engines. The vent line is at the intertank region of the external tank and is the overboard vent to the pad and the flare stack where the vented hydrogen is burned off. ... The NASA launch team is resetting to preserve the option of attempting a Thursday night liftoff at 8:54 p.m. EDT depending on what repairs are needed and what managers decide. The Mission Management Team is meeting at 5 p.m. today to discuss the issue." You can watch for updates on NASA's Space Shuttle page, too.

6 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Good News for People on the East Coast by longacre · · Score: 5, Informative

    The shuttle is set to take an unusual course nearly parallel with the east coast for this mission, which will be visible to nearly everyone from Florida to New York. The weather is a bit cloudy today, but should be perfectly clear Thursday night.

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  2. "again"? by Cally · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is the first scrub of STS-119 since the T-44 countdown start. Colour me pedantic and all but... *shrug*

    It sounds to me like they're expecting to have to pull down the stack to fix this, though the clock's theoretically only reset to T+24 in case they decide it's OK to fly with this issue, in which case we'll see the next launch attempt at 01:20 UTC plus a bit tomorrow night, when the ISS orbit's next sync'd with Florida.

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    "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
    1. Re:"again"? by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Informative

      They're probably going to move heaven and earth to avoid a rollback - with STS-125 (the Hubble mission) in the batter's box they are in a tight corner... 125 needs both pads, because there isn't a safe haven (as there is for ISS missions). The longer it takes to get 125 off the ground, the longer it is before they can hand over a pad to start conversion for Ares.

  3. Re:would u fly on that bird by Slumdog · · Score: 2, Informative

    if you are an astronaut an the mission has been rescheduled like 3 times because of failiures on the ship would you fly on that? i wont, i guess that bird its to old to fly any more.

    Yes, but NASA also has Astronuts, many of whom have been flying quite frequently.

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  4. Re:would u fly on that bird by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 3, Informative

    The space shuttle isn't even 30 years old yet. They still fly airline jets older than that.

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  5. Re:would u fly on that bird by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    but airlines don't have to handle the extreme pressures of space flight. a re-useable space craft is a great idea but material science isn't up there yet to handle it well. It's like trying to do super-sponic speeds with cheap metal or wood in an aircraft, it just won't hold up well especially over time.