Discovery's Next Launch Attempt Early Friday

August 26, 2009
Discovery's Next Launch Attempt Early Friday

Enlarge

Space shuttle Discovery stands on Launch Pad 39A on Tuesday evening after the second launch attempt was called off because of a problem with a fill-and-drain valve. Photo credit: NASA TV

NASA has targeted the next launch attempt for space shuttle Discovery for no earlier than 12:22 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 28, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Wednesday's launch attempt was postponed after an indication that a valve in the shuttle's main propulsion system failed to perform as expected during fueling of the shuttle's external fuel tank.

NASA managers officially postponed Wednesday's launch attempt because of uncertainty about whether a valve that was commanded to be closed actually was closed. The valve is associated with the fill and drain plumbing of the main propulsion system within the shuttle's aft compartment.

The mission management team will meet at noon on Thursday, Aug. 27, to discuss the troubleshooting results and decide whether to continue with a launch attempt. The tanking weather briefing will follow at 2:15 p.m.

Discovery's 13-day STS-128 flight to the will deliver storage racks; materials and fluids science racks; a freezer to store research samples; a new sleeping compartment; an air purification system; and a treadmill named after comedian .

Provided by JPL/NASA (news : web)


Rank not rated yet
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Never ending outer space.....
    created12 hours ago
  • Neutron Star fragments?
    created14 hours ago
  • stationary or not?
    created18 hours ago
  • Scale of the Universe
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Titan's lack of impact craters
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • Real pictures of black hole eating a star?
    createdFeb 08, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - General Astronomy

More news stories

Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation

Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.

Space & Earth / Environment

created 6 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Political leaders play key role in how worried Americans are by climate change: study

More than extreme weather events and the work of scientists, it is national political leaders who influence how much Americans worry about the threat of climate change, new research finds.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 72

NASA budget will axe Mars deal with Europe: scientists

US President Barack Obama's budget proposal to be submitted next week for 2013 will cut NASA's budget by 20 percent and eliminate a major partnership with Europe on Mars exploration, scientists said Thursday.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 55

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (14) | comments 20 | with audio podcast report

Study shows global glaciers, ice caps, shedding billions of tons of mass annually

Earth's glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 14 | with audio podcast


Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic

He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.

Europeans protest controversial Internet pact

Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.

Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...

Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher

The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...

Explained: Sigma

It's a question that arises with virtually every major new finding in science or medicine: What makes a result reliable enough to be taken seriously? The answer has to do with statistical significance -- but ...