Space shuttle Endeavour grounded again
July 14th, 2009 - 7:19 am ICT by IANSWashington, July 14 (DPA) The space shuttle Endeavour was grounded for the fifth time on Monday with stormy weather again causing NASA to cancel a scheduled launch.
A storm south of the Cape Canaveral, Florida launch site threatened not just the launch, but also a landing site should the flight need to be aborted after lift-off. The decision to scrub the launch came shortly before the planned 6.51 p.m. (2251 GMT)
launch.
NASA said it would try again Wednesday at 6.03 p.m. (2203 GMT).
“When the time is right, we’ll be here and we’ll be ready,” said Commander Mark Polansky, who had been strapped into the shuttle along with the rest of the crew when the effort was scrubbed.
The seven-member crew is to deliver an outside porch to be installed on the International Space Station’s Japanese Kibo module to expose scientific experiments to the extremities of space.
The mission has suffered a slew of delays that kept the craft on the ground for weeks longer than planned. A planned Sunday launch was cancelled due to storms and a Saturday launch was also scrubbed due to lightening the night before that struck the launch pad, but sparred the shuttle itself.
NASA was forced to postponed the launch twice in just four days last month, after technicians detected hydrogen gas leaks during fuelling, just hours before scheduled liftoff.
- Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off - Jul 16, 2009
- Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for final time - Jul 08, 2011
- Space shuttle Endeavour launch postponed again - Jun 17, 2009
- NASA delays shuttle Endeavour's launch - Apr 30, 2011
- NASA calls off Endeavour launch attempt due to technical problem - Apr 30, 2011
- Space shuttle Discovery blasts off (Lead) - Aug 29, 2009
- Atlantis docks for last time with International Space Station - Jul 11, 2011
- Endeavour hit by part of fuel tank insulation (Lead) - Jul 16, 2009
- Launch of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour postponed until July 13 - Jul 13, 2009
- Shuttle Atlantis makes its last landing - Jul 21, 2011
- Endeavour launch postponed again - Jul 13, 2009
- Space shuttle Discovery set for midnight launch - Aug 29, 2009
- Space shuttle Discovery set to return to Earth for final time - Mar 08, 2011
- Discovery's last mission extended by a day - Mar 04, 2011
- NASA's Endeavour launch delayed again until at least May 8 - May 02, 2011
Tags: cape canaveral florida, commander mark polansky, extremities, fifth time, gas leaks, gmt, hydrogen gas, international space station, july 14, kibo, launch pad, liftoff, member crew, nasa, porch, scientific experiments, slew, space shuttle endeavour, storms, stormy weather
