Leak fix could cause a week's delay

Fixing leaking hydraulic seals on Discovery could delay the orbiter's move from its hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building by a week, also causing a delay in the next launch.

"They're talking about rolling over around the middle of next week," said NASA spokesman George Diller.

A leaking hydraulic seal in a right landing gear strut, which acts like a shock absorber, was discovered and must be replaced. All the seals in the landing gear will be replaced, said Diller.

"They felt like that if they're going to be changing seals, they might as well change all of them," said Diller.

The launch schedule has five padding days in it, called contingency days. The repair could likely use up all those days and then some, forcing a delay in the Oct. 23 launch.

"We just don't know by how much," said Diller.

Discovery is scheduled to launch Oct. 23 on a construction mission to the International Space Station. It will deliver the 21-foot Harmony module, which will serve as a node to connect other laboratories and expand the station. Five spacewalks are planned, including one to relocate the massive P-6 truss.