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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.

15 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. is that all? by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 5, Funny

    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. ...

    All you gotta do is reflangulate the intertank, recalibrate the L16 connectors for the overboard vent pad, then halve the current to the flare dampener in the flare stack to compensate for the excess vented hydrogen. Bake on 350 for 20 minutes and allow to cool.

    1. Re:is that all? by MxTxL · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ah... well, hell. Why didn't you say so??

      *picard voice*
      COMPUTER! Reflangulate the intertank, recalibrate the L16 connectors for the overboard vent pad, then halve the current to the flare dampener in the flare stack to compensate for the excess vented hydrogen. Bake on 350 for 20 minutes and allow to cool!
      *end picard vioce*

  2. What do you know, by pecosdave · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For the first time I find out about a scrub before the crew loads up from work not /. - or CNN, or Fark, or Fox news.

    It's sick but I do ground system maintenance and unless I'm actually watching the screen and listening to DVIS we find out about the scrubs from the news, not the pipeline around here.

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  3. 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.

    --
    Airplane Photos, Airline News, Planespotting Guides
  4. "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.

    --
    "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
    1. Re:"again"? by iamlucky13 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This mission was originally supposed to launch February 12. I know, because I bought tickets to go see it, and I ended up missing (KSC still makes for a great vacation though).

      They got within a week or two of launch, and decided they still weren't happy with the analysis that had been conducted for troubleshooting an issue with the propellant lines that cropped up during Endeavor's STS-126 launch. A valve on a secondary fuel handling line had failed, and while it didn't appear to affect that flight there was concern that it would either result in metal particles from the valve causing issues downstream, or lead to excess hydrogen venting that could cause a fire. They spent the last month testing and quantifying the probability of these concerns, and figuring out additional safeguards to implement for this flight, since making new valves would be an additional two months.

      The next possible launch window is about 23:30 after this one, but apparently the expected resolution for the leak is a multi-day process. The launch is now scheduled for no-earlier-than Mar 15 (19:43 EDT), but Mar 16 (19:21 EDT) sounds likely. As I understand it, re-installing the ground support hydrogen line on external tank requires a 30 hour waiting period before applying the final torque to allow the seals to compress...a typical factor when working with torque specs on plastic components. That 30 hours is on top of the time to demate and remate the hydrogen line, do leak checks, and reset to the proper point in the countdown.

      Anyway, because they're working against a launch window before the next Soyuz launches to the station, they're losing at least one mission day, and if it slips to the 16th, they'll be losing another day, plus one EVA. That will mean they can get the last solar array installed, but not fully hooked up. I'm not sure if that EVA would be handed off to a future shuttle mission, or if it could be fit into the station crew's schedule. If the launch happens after Mar. 16, they'll have to wait until after the Soyuz mission.

      There's a briefing going on regarding all this right now on NASA TV.

  5. Re:would u fly on that bird by confused+one · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Any guesses as to how many times that plane you last flew on was delayed because it needed a repair?

  6. Obligatory Onion by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Funny

    NASA delays shuttle out of sheer habit

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    Monstar L
    1. Re:Obligatory Onion by Alotau · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not sure if it was habit or just because of this guy.

  7. Noone to blame by dvh.tosomja · · Score: 5, Funny

    This article is very poor, I can't manage the way how to blame Microsoft for that failure.

  8. 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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    My blog
  9. The race... by retech · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would seem that NASA is not as serious about the new space race as China. Someone will end up controlling the skies, just got to wonder whom.

  10. Re:would u fly on that bird by blagger99 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    You get a chance to fly into freaking space (ok LEO, but it's still space) and you're going to say no because the craft needs some maintenance? I'm going to guess you never bungie-jumped or sky dived.

  11. "yet" considered harmful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Every time I see the word "yet" in a news item concerning a delay in launching a shuttle, I'm taken back to Dan Rather's words the night before NASA launched the Challenger for the last time.

    "Yet another costly, red-faces-all-around space shuttle-launch delay. This time a bad bolt on a hatch and a bad-weather bolt from the blue are being blamed. What's more, a rescheduled launch for tomorrow doesn't look good either. Bruce Hall has the latest on today's high-tech low comedy."

    There was a lot of talk and reports about NASA being pressured to launch this mission and the resulting slack in decision making. No excuse for that, of course, but I worked at NASA at the time and Dan Rather was on the s**t list for a long time afterwards.

  12. Re:If it can't be fixed with duct-tape by MrKaos · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can we make the elevator out of duct tape?

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.