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NASA delays space shuttle flight until 2011

shuttletanks.jpgLast month, space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to go on a historic final flight. But technical problems scrapped the initial date and, despite repairs, NASA officials have delayed the launch until no earlier than 3 February.

A hydrogen gas leak postponed the original 3 November launch. But while doing further inspections to ready the shuttle for launch again, engineers noticed cracks running down two 21-foot-long, aluminum brackets, called stringers, that run between the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tank. After installing new doubly-thick sections of metal to replace the two stringers on 19 November, NASA engineers conducted analysis and tests to explain what was found and clear Discovery for launch.

“We were expecting to find an obvious problem, a flaw in the material or a crack,” said John Shannon, the space shuttle program manager, during a press briefing a Johnson Spaceflight Center in Houston, Texas on 3 December. “To our surprise, there was no initial crack in the stringer.”


NASA is unsure if the problem will arise again and will have to explore in greater detail what types of stress can be placed on the repaired stringers, he added. Engineers will conduct two tests on the stringer material during the next month to see if they can replicate the cause of the failure, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations.

The delay pushes back the last currently-funded shuttle fleet launch, that of space shuttle Endeavor, scheduled for 27 February. NASA is now aiming to conduct that flight around 1 April, said Gerstenmaier. This means the final component of the International Space Station (ISS), a long-delayed particle physics experiment called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, will also be forced to wait since there is little chance of rearranging the shuttles’ cargoes.

NASA still expects to plan for a $500 million third shuttle flight, currently mandated but unfunded by the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which would fly around November 2011, said Mike Suffredini, ISS program manager. This final flight would carry supplies and research materials to the ISS one last time before NASA must rely on commercial spaceflight, which may have delays before being prepared to take over this task, he added.

Image: NASA

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  1. Report this comment

    Uncle Al said:

    No Saturn V was ever a hangar queen. The use once and toss Saturn V cost/kg boosted into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) was less than 1/3 that of the Space Scuttle (constant dollars). Saturn V’s payload of 119 tonnes was five times that of the Space Scuttle’s 24 tonnes (and then “safety” derated).

    Not A Space Agency.

  2. Report this comment

    Alex said:

    Astrobiology Magazine (03/11/10) – NASA: Sun’s Nemesis Pelted Earth with Comets, Study Suggests… University of Louisiana-Lafayette astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire: Gigantic hidden planet could be hurling comets at the rest of the solar system… National Geographic (November 19, 2008): MYSTERIOUS ASTROPHYSICAL OBJECT that’s bombarding Earth with cosmic rays:

    https://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2010/12/gigantic-hidden-planet-could-be-hurling.html

  3. Report this comment

    Justin Carter said:

    It was very exciting to see that space shuttle really have its historic final flight. Its really amazing to see this and you will only utter how this thing have been created.

    I have read a news that, a life form surviving in arsenic identified by NASA astrobiologists was revealed Thurs. I found this here: NASA scientist discovers arsenic-based alien life form – on earth. The scoop leaked a few hours before a much-anticipated National Aeronautics and Space Administration press conference linked to the hunt for alien existence. NASA’s finding was actually made on earth, where a life form based on arsenic was found in a toxic CA lake.

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