NASA Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach stated that Endeavour’s launch will be no earlier than Monday at 2:33 p.m. EDT. Engineers need that time to troubleshoot an issue that resulted in today’s launch scrub.
During today’s countdown, engineers detected a failure in one of two heater circuits associated with Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) 1. Heaters are required to keep the APUs’ hydrazine from freezing on orbit. Attempts to activate the heater were not successful and engineers now believe the problem might be associated with a Load Control Assembly, which is a switchbox, located in the aft end of Endeavour, or an electrical short in the wires leading into or out of the switchbox.Because of this, Leinbach said there will be a minimum 72-hour scrub turnaround. The ISS Progress 42 cargo craft docked to the Pirs docking compartment on the International Space Station at 10:28 a.m. EDT Friday, less than six hours before space shuttle Endeavour’s scheduled launch to the station on the STS-134 mission.The cargo ship launched at 9:05 a.m. Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying 1,940 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,976 pounds of maintenance hardware, experiment equipment and resupply items for the Expedition 28 crew.
NASA managers announced that space shuttle Endeavour is ready to launch next week on its final flight to the International Space Station following a daylong Flight Readiness Review on Tuesday. Endeavour is scheduled to launch Friday, April 29, at 3:47 p.m. EDT."We had a very extensive and thorough review today," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations. "I think the things that impressed me the most is that the team is still continuing to really work issues and look at the vehicle performance on each and every flight just like they would during any normal mission.""We're ready to go fly," Gerstenmaier said.
All analysis and inspections of External Fuel Tank-122 confirmed its integrity after repairs were made because of damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina, according to Gerstenmaier."It was a really good review today from both the station and shuttle prospective," said Mike Moses, chairman of the Mission Management Team. "Endeavour and the team are in great shape."Endeavour is poised on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The countdown is to begin Tuesday at 2 p.m."The final processing flow for Endeavour is going extremely well out at the pad," said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "I'm very proud of the team and we'll going to have a good launch and a good mission."The STS-134 crew is scheduled to arrive at Kennedy on Tuesday, April 26, for final launch preparations.
The Space Shuttle Program's final solid rocket booster structural assembly -- the right-hand forward -- moved from the Assembly Refurbishment Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. The right and left forward assemblies, which are refurbished and processed at KSC, are comprised of three components -- nose cap, frustum and forward skirt. Inside the VAB, the boosters will be stacked and then mated to an external fuel tank for space shuttle Atlantis for what currently is planned as the "launch on need," or potential rescue mission, for Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International Space Station targeted to launch in 2011.About three miles away, at Launch Pad 39A, technicians are servicing the solid rocket booster hydraulic power units as the space shuttle Discovery stack is readied for launch. Liftoff remains targeted for Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT.The remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole passed well offshore from Kennedy and aren't affecting operations at the center. Discovery's processing at the pad also was not affected by the storm.At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the STS-133 crew will perform a bench review of flight crew equipment.
