14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the American space agency announce that the space shuttle Discovery is not yet ready to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). In all likelihood, they add, the orbiter will not be able to take off during next weeks' launch window.
The decision is owed to the most recent series of delays striking the launch effort, which is currently taking place at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida. Mission controllers say now that the flight could take place well into the holiday season.
There is also a distinct possibility that the spacecraft will not launch until February, when the next window of opportunity opens. This happens when the alignment of the ISS' orbit coincides with the path taken by rockets taking off from the KSC.
Yesterday, November 24, NASA officials met with mission scientists, planners and controllers, and got a chance to look over the results of nearly a month of continuous repair work done on the shuttle.
The orange fuel tank on which both the orbiter and its twin Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) lie was found to be n pretty bad shape before launch, with several cracks and deformations occurring on its surface.
Additional damage was discovered before that in the spacecraft's engine computers and fuel lines. Those malfunctions were addressed in time, but working on the external fuel tank is not that easy.
As the NASA experts discussed the fate of the STS-133 mission, they decided not to try and launch the shuttle between December 3-7, which is when the next window of opportunity opens.
The next available data for take-off will be December 17, they said. However, if the shuttle is not ready by then – and there is a large chance that it will not be – it will only launch in February at the earliest.
“What we've told the agency leadership is that clearly we're not ready for the Dec. 3 to Dec. 7 window that's coming up next week,” NASA shuttle program manager John Shannon told reporters in a briefing, Space reports.
“We'll leave the option open for a launch window for Dec. 17, but a lot of data has to come together to support that,” he added, hinting at the challenges still ahead for the engineering teams.
If the December 17 window cannot be used, then NASA will most likely opt to delay the mission until February. The agency avoids having spacecraft in space when the year changes, because a risky computer reboot is needed when this happens.
But, if the orbiter's launch is delayed to February, then this will conflict with the launch of shuttle Endeavor, which is currently scheduled to use that window. Keep an eye on this space for more on NASA's decisions in this issue.