NASA has again scrubbed the launch of a shuttle due to problems with hydrogen.

Leaks of the liquid fuel repeatedly pushed back the launch of Endeavour and now Discovery has also encountered the Curse of the NASA Hydrogen.

At 10:12 GMT yesterday the space agency announced that it had begun filling Discovery’s external tank with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. But at 11:01 a problem was encountered with a ‘fill-and-drain valve’ and the planned launch of mission STS-128 was abandoned.

“When launch controllers commanded it to close, they did not receive the ‘closed’ indication,” says NASA. “There is a concern that the valve is either open or partially open, but that needs to be evaluated for confirmation.”

CNET’s Space Shot blog notes that there could be a problem with the valve, or there could just be a problem with the sensor that measures the position of the valve:

If it turns out the position sensor was to blame—and if NASA managers can get comfortable launching Discovery without full instrumentation in a critical system—then a launch attempt Friday at 12:22 a.m. EDT might be feasible.

But if engineers are forced to open the shuttle’s engine compartment and replace any suspect components, launch could be delayed to around October 17.

There is one small silver lining for the astronauts in this cloud. “Bad luck again, but maybe we can have dinner with the families,” wrote Christer Fuglesang on his twitter feed.

Image: NASA TV