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Shuttle Launch scrubbed due to Hydrogen gas leak

by albertacowpoke | June 17, 2009 at 03:06 am

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For the second time this week, NASA has had to scrub the Shuttle launch. A hydrogen leak, which although relatively minor in nature, was spotted by a NASA engineer.

This leak is potentially dangerous and NASA tried to fix the problem through remote commands. When it could not be fixed the launch was scrubbed, as NASA did not want to take any chances. The launch was scheduled for 5:40 am ET.

The scrubbed launches cost NASA approximately 1 Million Dollars, primarily in fuel costs.

The shuttle is scheduled to have Canadian astronaut Julie Payette aboard, who will be on her second space mission.

No word yet when the launch is scheduled again. NASA said it was too early to tell if the shuttle could be launched July 11th.

Chris Hatfield, another Canadian astronaut who has been on past missions was interviewed on CBC this morning. He stated that they faced some weather related problems prior to fuelling the shuttle. That's when the leak was noticed and the decision made to scrub the mission.

Astronauts came out of quarantine this morning and will likely return to quarantine on July 4th for a renewed try at the shuttle launch on July 11th.

A hydrogen gas leak again forced NASA to delay Wednesday's launch of the Endeavour, which is scheduled to carry Canadian astronaut Julie Payette to the International Space Station.

It is the second time in less than a week that NASA has spotted a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak and delayed the launch of the space shuttle from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Endeavour now won't blast off until July, at the earliest.

Launch officials said the leak appeared during fuelling in the hydrogen gas vent line that hooks up to the external fuel tank. It is the same location as the leak that was spotted on Saturday and caused the previous delay.

Attempts were made to fix the leak through remote commands but after more than an hour of efforts — the launch, which was scheduled for 5:40 a.m. ET, was cancelled.

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sivakaran

at 05:10 on June 17th, 2009

Margin for error is very very small when we're talking about Shuttle.

albertacowpoke

at 05:27 on June 17th, 2009

That's very true siva. Thank you for commenting.

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at 07:52 on June 17th, 2009

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