Space Shuttle Endeavour launch delayed again

April 30, 2011 - 07:48 am

Looks like another delay for Endeavour's historic flight. Just moments ago, these updates from NASA twitter account:

NASA managers determined it is not possible to launch Endeavour on Monday, which had been the earliest possible liftoff date. Details soon..less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyNASA
NASA

Based on the amount of time needed to do the fix, a new shuttle launch attempt will not happen before the end of the week, at the soonest.less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyNASA
NASA

There is a scheduled 10:30 a.m. press conference to explain what happened at Sunday morning's meeting of launch teams. The targeted launch of last Friday at 3:47 p.m. was scrubbed due to a problem with a heating mechanism on the auxiliary power unit.

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The Space Shuttle Endeavour before launch.

 

There are actually two of them and one is working. But NASA is all about redundancy and if there aren't two in working order NASA "won't fly until we're ready."

In previous a post-scrub briefing, NASA officials said that it was pivotal to fix the auxiliary power unit heaters before launch, because they keep the shuttle's fuel from freezing in orbit.

"It was pretty straight-forward scrub today," said Mission Management and Team Chair Mike Moses. "The team made a very good call."

Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach added that the thermostat that controls the heater did not function properly when activated.

Before the launch was scrubbed, President Barack Obama and his family toured the Kennedy Space Center and spoke with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is in Florida to watch the launch. Her husband is Mark Kelly, the commander of the mission.

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