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NASA Scrambles To Find Shuttle Fault As Launch Window Closes

Cape Canaveral, Florida (AFP) Jul 15, 2005
NASA raced against time Thursday to fix its Discovery shuttle and avoid an extended delay in getting the space program back on track after the 2003 Columbia disaster.

After calling off Wednesday's launch, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration must get the shuttle into orbit by July 31 or be forced to wait until September 9 for a new launch "window".

NASA initially said that no new launch could be attempted before Saturday, at the earliest, but by late Thursday, even Sunday was looking unlikely for another attempt.

Experts have blamed a faulty gauge on the hydrogen fuel tanks for the decision to halt the countdown two hours and 20 minutes before Wednesday's liftoff. The seven crew members, including Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, were already on board Discovery.

NASA engineers held a first meeting into the causes of the fault early Thursday before their first examination of the electronic circuitry that controls the sensor and released details later in the day.

The sensor is one of four that sends data on the levels of hydrogen in the main tank, to determine when the three engines should be shut off during the ascent into orbit.

The faulty sensor "showed 'wet' when we sent test commands that should have made it indicate dry to the computers," Wayne Hale, deputy director of NASA's shuttle program, told a news conference, explaining what had triggered the alert.

Dry is the "low-level cut off state," said Hale. "One of those four sensors failed that check. That's a violation of our launch commit criteria so we stopped the count."

While keeping an eagle's eye on the sensors, the technicians went ahead and drained the tank in an operation that started on Wednesday night.

"When the tank was drained down to the point at which those sensors were uncovered, three -- the good three sensors -- showed dry." The fourth sensor still showed wet, he said.

However, "after about three hours of reading wet, the sensor changed to dry," presenting the "very worst kind of thing to troubleshoot."

Twelve different engineering teams are in place "to attack" the problem, which he described earlier as an "unexplained anomaly".

Thursday was "largely spent in data review" and "what we are more likely into is several days of troubleshooting."

"Tonight, as our troubleshooting plan comes together, we will probably start to offload the cryogenic reactants for the fuel cells.

"That gives us the safety measure to get into the aft end of the orbiter to try -- start -- the troubleshooting inside if we decide that's the thing to do.

"Given that work, if we were to get extremely lucky, it is theoretically possible that we could still launch on Sunday," said Hale.

If the problem is serious, NASA will have to take the shuttle back to its hangar at the Cape Canaveral base in Florida.

Repairs would then take weeks to carry out, and a launch in August is not possible because of the orbit of the International Space Station. The Discovery mission is to link up with the space station.

The delay is a major disappointment for NASA, which is seeking to re-establish the prestige of the US space programme after Columbia burst into flames and broke up as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003.

All seven crew members were killed, and NASA grounded the remaining shuttles in its fleet.

The US agency has been forced to completely rethink the shuttle programme since then and has made major changes to the shuttles to reduce the risk of a new accident.

NASA's plans were also thrown Tuesday, when a plastic and foam protective cover fell 20 meters (60 feet) off one of Discovery's windows, damaging tiles on one of the two orbital maneuvering systems.

All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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NASA Postpones Discovery Launch, Won't Try Again Before Next Week
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Jul 13, 2005
NASA called off Wednesday's Discovery liftoff after detecting a fuel sensor problem, saying Saturday would be the earliest date for a launch of the first space shuttle since the 2003 Columbia disaster.



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