Tonight's 24-hour turnaround at the space shuttle launch complex won't be routine.
In addition to preparing for a third launch attempt in as many days, engineers have decided to replace a damaged cover on one of the orbiter's engine pods. Engineers knew about the damage earlier today, but deemed it no threat to the mission.
Since the launch scrubbed earlier this evening because of approaching storms, however, the team now has time to send a repair crew to the launch pad and replace the torn cover. NASA says the work can be done in about four hours and fits within the timeline for overnight tasks to be done to be ready for a liftoff tomorrow.
Endeavour and seven astronauts are set to be launched at 6:51 p.m. Monday as long as the repair work goes well and the weather holds out tomorrow. There's a 60 percent chance of favorable launch weather for Monday.
The RSS is being moved back into place tonight to accommodate the repair work. NASA says the torn cover and repair work pose no threat to Monday's launch unless water gets inside the damaged area before the protective service structure is in place.
We'll bring you more details as they develop.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
5 comments:
Well, we already have the built-in delay for tomorrow: The four-hour unnecessary repair that might not get done in time due to "unforseen circumstances."
Tonight I became so fed up with the shuttle management team that I wrote to Senator Nelson and asked for oversight. I asked that they quit closing the beach and refuge three days before and the day of the launch (Are we afraid terrorists are hiding in the dunes with launchers - for a shuttle that doesn't launch - those terrorists must be getting tired of waiting) as 24 hours of closure should be plenty; I asked that he ensure that we use a capsule on the next vehicle to minimize all these self-created constraints; I asked that he cancel the two flights on the list of final seven whose manifest is "spare parts" (unmanned Progress capsules can deliver these parts safer and cheaper than manned vehicles, and the six dudes up there surely can do the unpacking); and I asked that future launch systems, where practical, be designed to launch from White Sands - to miminmize the impact on us humans who actually participate in recreation along the coast and are tired of the closings.
NASA says they want to be a "good neighbor." Sometimes the best way for someone to be a good neighbor, when all else has been exhausted, is to move.
NASA: It was nice knowing you. To those of you who work on these programs: Sorry. I have moved twice though in my career in order to pursue better opportunities and once in order to avoid a layoff. Sometimes it's what you have to do.
Bottom line: These decisions are in the hands of people who have been making bad decisions now for 30 years. Something has to change.
Wow. To the poster at 9:36, perhaps NASA should have gone ahead with the launch despite concerns and killed the crew, ended the program early and the beach would be closed less. How much hate do you have in you for your neighbors and others? Do you have any concern at all for the local economy? For people's jobs? Care about anything but bein inconvenienced by not being able to go to ONE of the MANY beaches in this area?
You're misinformed about the manifest for the final seven space shuttle flights, the capabilities of the Progress vehicle and a host of other issues. The constraints that prevented the launch Saturday and Sunday were both life-threatening to the astronauts as well as the spacecraft. Delays are a part of space flight and are not an indication of incompetence on the part of NASA, as it seems you're indicated. If you're looking for the United States to develop a spacecraft that can launch on schedule every time, without issue, then you're dreaming. Weather and technical problems will always be part of the system. There will always be delays. The decisions to delay Saturday and Sunday were not bad decisions, but rather were based on rules long in place to protect the astronauts, the spacecraft and your home from the possibility of a catastrophe.
"There will always be delays."
John, they are about ten years behind schedule. That's not a delay - that's the result of a bad design (Adm Griffin's words, not mine).
To the other poster: Sure I care about the economy. But rather than have people working inefficiently all these years, think how many unmanned launches could have been made with all the money they've spent on the shuttle AFTER it was supposed to be retired. There was never a plan to have the ISS still under construction in 2009. All of this - every single bit of it - is a result of having picked a glider rather than a capsule in the late 70s. At the least, let's make sure we do it right the next time.
The "glider" can lift more than just about any launch vehicle in the US arsenal. The delays this time were a result of bad weather and a leak, both of which are bad for Astronauts. The GUCP was redesigned due to isses with disconnection a few flights ago (or so I've read). Something changed the footprint of the adapter, which they have corrected. The change was to make the system better and safer. If they had not changed, the GUCP gets stuck and forces a scrub, and people would gripe.
Everything they have learned in EVERY program has been applied to future space flight vehicles and processes.
Weather forced the scrub for two reasons, lightning and clouds. Would anyone want to see NASA fire off the Shuttle into a thunderstorm so that lightning could hit the shuttle? Shutdown the engines and they must abort the flight, blow off the SRB's and then ET. Turn around and land at KSC with the avionics possibly failed and cloud cover so thick they can't see the runway.
Sure it more important to go to the nude beach.
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