14 DAY TRIAL // Just before the space shuttle Endeavour launched on its final mission on Friday, April 29, experts at NASA discovered a malfunction aboard the spacecraft that forced them to scrub the attempt.
The orbiter remained grounded, and a new launch date has been set for two days from now. The damage engineers at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) found affected a critical power unit aboard the spacecraft. Without it, the safety of the mission cannot be guaranteed.
In an auxiliary power unit, investigators found two heaters that had failed. The entire unit was deemed to be useless, and so the launch had to be delayed until a replacement could be found and installed.
Originally, the spacecraft was supposed to take off from the Launch Pad 39A facility at 3:47 pm EDT (1947 GMT) on April 29. At this time, the next attempt is scheduled to take place at 2:33 pm EDT (1733 GMT) on Monday, May 2, Space reports.
After the issue hampering Endeavour's functionality was identified, mission controllers decided that it may be wisest to delay the launch by as much as 72 hours. They need to ensure that everything is in perfect order before the shuttle can be allowed to take off on STS-134.
“It's unfortunate for the [Endeavour] team and Mark Kelly and his crew, but today the orbiter's not ready to fly, and as we always say in this business, we will not fly before we're ready,” said Mike Leinbach, who is the NASA Launch Director.
“The troubleshooting proved that it was a hard failure. We were not able to get it to come to life no matter what we did,” he added, saying that NASA has a rather narrow window of opportunity to launch the spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).
If Endeavour cannot be sent to low-Earth orbit by May 4, then all launch attempts need to subside until at least May 9 or May 10. During this interval, an Atlas 5 delivery system is scheduled to launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), a facility adjacent to the KSC.
“Obviously we would have very much loved to have seen Endeavour lifting off this afternoon, but that wasn’t to be the case. Safety always comes first,” explained KSC director Bob Cabana on Friday.
According to NASA officials, the launch attempt was attended by at least 750,000 people, who came in from around the country to witness the last flight of Endeavour. This is the second-last shuttle mission ever, and the shuttle is scheduled to be retired to a museum once it returns from space.
The last-ever shuttle flight, dubbed STS-135, will be carried out by the space shuttle Atlantis, which will blast off for the ISS on June 28. Once it returns, the Space Shuttle Program will finally conclude, after more than 30 years of operations.