Cape Canaveral: NASA hopes to figure out what caused the latest problem keeping Atlantis earthbound: an electrical short in a 30-year-old motor.
If the agency determines by tonight that the cause of the short is not serious, NASA can try to launch the shuttle on Friday morning.
NASA scrubbed Wednesday's and Thursday's launch attempts because of the short in one of Atlantis' electricity-generating fuel cells. The delays follow postponements last month due to a lightning strike on the launch pad and the approach of Tropical Storm Ernesto.
Atlantis and its six astronauts plan to haul 17 1/2 tons of girders and solar panels into orbit and resume construction of the international space station, which has been on hold since the Columbia disaster three and half years ago. Astronauts will make three spacewalks to put the pieces together.
NASA is caught in a schedule squeeze. The space agency made an agreement with the Russians not to attempt a launch after tomorrow because Russia is sending a three-person Soyuz capsule to the space station on September 18.
If it does not launch on Friday, the space agency may have to wait until late October - or relax daylight launching rules instituted after the 2003 Columbia accident and try again at the end of September.
Once the Russian Soyuz comes back, NASA may attempt a launch as early as September 28 or 29 even though the launch would be in darkness, spokesman Allard Beutel said.
Comments
0 comment