Endeavour’s Final Launch further delayed another Week or more
Posted by brandoniswrite on May 27, 2010
Space Shuttle Endeavour awaits launch sometime in May from Pad 39 A following launch scrub called on April 29, 2011. Critical APU heaters failed during the final countdown. The APU’s are located the aft section of the orbiter around the main engines in this close up view taken while I was standing next to the orbiter in March. Endeavour and her 6 man crew will deliver the Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station which seeks to unveil the Unknown and uncover the birth of the Universe. Credit: Ken Kremer
Update: photo below shows location of access door used to enter orbiter near the main engines
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – The final launch of shuttle Endeavour will be further delayed, perhaps by a week or more – to May 6 or 11 time frame – as technicians working at the pad seek to determine the cause of the failure of multiple heaters in auxiliary power unit-1 (APU) which caused the scrub of Endeavour’s launch attempt on Friday, with just 4 hours remaining in the countdown. The six man crew of Endeavour had just departed for the launch pad inside the Astrovan and was forced to turn around soon thereafter. We saw them pass us by, heading back to crew quarters to await a resolution of the issues.
The launch delay came as a huge disappointment to NASA and the enormous crowd estimated at 750.000 people who came to Florida to watch the momentous liftoff in person for what many call a “life changing experience”. Even President Obama and the entire first family were on hand to witness Endeavour’s launch. But the top priority is to launch the shuttle safely and the launch team emphasized that they made absolutely no changes to the countdown procedures. (…)
Read the rest of Endeavour’s Final Launch further delayed another Week or more (456 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: AMS-02, international space station, ISS, Mark Kelly Gabrielle Giffords, NASA, Space Shuttle Endeavour
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