NASA Shuttle Discovery
Cape Canaveral in Florida this week proved to be a place where the ability to bide your time and remain patient was essential.
Monday 1st November 2010 was to see the final launch of the NASA space shuttle Discovery before it is decommissioned forever. However, what followed was a series of problems, helium and nitrogen gas leaks, an electrical problem with a circuit breaker, and bad weather, with the launch date being put back again and again.
Finally, a hydrogen leak from an 18cm long crack in an external fuel tank discovered just hours before the launch brought the whole proceedings to a finish on Friday, with the latest problem likely to take at least 4 days to fix.
NASA has now set the next launch date for no earlier than November 30th, with the likelihood that Discovery will launch in the first week of December at some point – hopefully!
Monday 1st November 2010 was to see the final launch of the NASA space shuttle Discovery before it is decommissioned forever. However, what followed was a series of problems, helium and nitrogen gas leaks, an electrical problem with a circuit breaker, and bad weather, with the launch date being put back again and again.
Finally, a hydrogen leak from an 18cm long crack in an external fuel tank discovered just hours before the launch brought the whole proceedings to a finish on Friday, with the latest problem likely to take at least 4 days to fix.
NASA has now set the next launch date for no earlier than November 30th, with the likelihood that Discovery will launch in the first week of December at some point – hopefully!
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