Tech & Biz

NASA Discovery Shuttle 2nd Launch Set for 7:43pm EST Sunday

by Jarrett Martineau | March 15, 2009 at 08:52 am

263 views | 12 Recommendations | 2 comments

After the scheduled Wednesday launch was aborted when a hydrogen gas leak was discovered, NASA will attempt a second launch of the space shuttle Discovery on Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 7:43pm EST.

The current weather forecast indicate 80% chance of "acceptable conditions" at launch time.

Discovery will be launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

For more information see NASA's official site: NASA - Space Shuttle

Aiming for a Sunday evening launch, NASA began fuelling space shuttle Discovery again in hopes repairs took care of a dangerous leak.

Liftoff was set for 7:43 p.m. ET, provided there were no more hydrogen leaks. Good weather was forecast.

On Sunday, NASA engineers found no hydrogen leaks and refueled the shuttle to ready it for liftoff.

Launch controllers found no signs of a leak when they opened the valve that releases evaporating hydrogen from Discovery.s external fuel tank into a system that carries it safely away from the shuttle. With the fueling of the tank going well, the countdown is proceeding toward an on-time liftoff of Discovery on STS-119 this evening at 7:43 p.m.