Categories: Space Shuttle

Fuel Leak Delays Shuttle Again

NASA was forced to postpone the launch of space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday for the second time after a problem with a hydrogen gas leak surfaced again while the ship was being fueled for flight.
An identical problem delayed a launch attempt on Saturday. Technicians had replaced seals in a hydrogen vent line in hopes of fixing the leak. The next opportunity to launch Endeavour will be on July 11 because of because of temperature constraints related to the International Space Station’s orbit.

“We’re going to step back and figure out what the problem is and go fix it,” said deputy shuttle program manager LeRoy Cain. “Obviously we have something here we didn’t understand as well as we thought we may have.”

Next up: Thursday June 18’s launch attempt for LRO/LCROSS at 5:12 p.m., 5:22 p.m. or 5:32 p.m. EDT. (9:12. 9:22 or 9:32 GMT)

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/