Shuttle launch delayed to July by hydrogen leak
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- For the second time in less than a week, a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak early Wednesday forced NASA to delay shuttle Endeavour's launch to the international space station, this time until July at the earliest.
Launch officials waited almost an hour after the leak appeared during fueling, trying to fix it through remote commands, before calling off Wednesday's pre-dawn launch.
The leak occurred in the same place as one that cropped up Saturday: in the hydrogen gas vent line that hooks up to the external fuel tank. A similar problem stalled a shuttle flight three months ago.
"We're going to step back and figure out what the problem is and go fix it," said deputy space shuttle program manager LeRoy Cain. "And then we'll fly as soon as we're ready to safely go do that."
The baffling leak is about the size of the point of a ball point pen. Workers on Saturday tried repairing it, but it didn't take. They were able to repair the problem on the March mission, but NASA still doesn't know its cause. Cain said an engineering investigation would find out what's causing the problem.
Launch officials said they were proud of the way the team hustled over the past four days trying to get Endeavour to the space station, with a new outdoor addition for the Japanese lab.
"I sure wish we could have rewarded them and the astronauts and everybody else with a launch this morning," assistant launch director Mike Leinbach said. "But the leak was way out of spec again, and so we were just not comfortable pressing on."
Even before hydrogen gas began leaking — a serious situation because of its flammability — NASA was up against a tight deadline for making the 5:40 a.m. ET launch. Fueling was delayed three hours by thunderstorms Tuesday night.
The seven astronauts were still in crew quarters when the leak was detected.
"I'm sure you all know that we postponed again," commander Mark Polansky wrote in a Twitter update. "It's a reminder that spaceflight is NOT routine. We will fly home to Houston this morning."
