14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at NASA say that the space shuttle Discovery will not take off before Thursday, November 4, after engineering teams discovered a new glitch in one of the orbiter's computers.
Mission controllers therefore decided to postpone the launch by 24 hours, so that engineering teams would have sufficient time to investigate the issue, and determine whether it's safe to fly the shuttle this month.
Over the past couple of weeks, the spacecraft has exhibited two separate leaks in key fuel lines, but engineers were able to repair all of them in time for a November 3 launch.
The new glitch, which is electric in nature this time, was found to affect some backup engine controllers on the shuttle. Engineers investigated it last night, and said that it is possible to fix the damage if given enough time.
It is critical that the new malfunction is repaired, the experts said, given that engine controllers are a key part of the shuttle. They control the behavior and function of each of the three main engines the American space shuttles have.
Because they are so important, each of the three computers also has a backup, and the glitch was discovered in one of these backup systems, that of Main Engine No. 3, Space reports.
At this point, the launch attempt is scheduled to take place at 3:29 pm (1929 GMT) on November 4. Discovery will take off from the Launch Pad 39A facility at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.
According to the NASA shuttle integration manager, Mike Moses, the backup system failed to turn on when controllers asked it to. Eventually, it did light up, but the team noticed that some voltage irregularities were being recorded.
“The signature coming out of that circuit showed another little glitch that was a little bit unexpected -= something we hadn't seen before, Moses told reporters at the KSC, in a news briefing.
“They were two separate events at two separate times in the day, but we think the cause of that is a common cause,” the NASA official added.
Another issue that the new launch is being plagued with is that the weather outlook has changed from what it was earlier in the week. Discovery was originally planned to launch on Monday, November 1.
There is now a 70 percent chance that low clouds or short showers over Cape Canaveral will delay the take off by at least a day more, said at the meeting Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer at NASA.
If the American space agency cannot launch the shuttle by November 7, then the current window of opportunity will close. This means that mission controllers will then have to wait until at lest December 1 to fly Discovery.