Following liftoff, the shuttle and its seven-astronaut STS-118 crew are expected to dock at the orbital laboratory two days later. With extra time to go over Endeavour with a fine-toothed comb this weekend, officials are confident they can launch the shuttle on Wednesday. "We assumed we had leak test equipment problems, but the more we tested it in other ways, we found that we really did have a leak," Diller said.īy Friday morning, shuttle engineers had repaired and successfully retested the leak, but making the fix cost NASA precious time leading up to the original Tuesday launch window. The faulty valve, however, let off too much air during the tests. The problem was eventually traced to a pressure-releasing valve in the crew's cabin, which allows excess air to vent from the shuttle to prevent over-pressurization. Technicians spent this week tracking a crew cabin leak aboard Endeavour. "They'rehaving a great time," Abbott said of the rookies, adding that every one ofthe crew members looks like "they're having a ball."We understand the decision to delay until Wednesday, and we agree with it completely," Kelly said on behalf of the entire crew.Ī series of time-consuming preparation tasks contributed to postponing the mission, Diller said. The astronauts awoke early Thursdayto the song "Where My Heart Will Take Me" by Russell Watson, thetheme to "Star Trek: Enterprise," chosen for Mastracchio. Shuttle pilot CharlieHobaugh and mission specialists Dave Williams and Rick Mastracchio round outthe crew. "It will require somebabysitting."Įndeavour'sSTS-118 mission marks the first time in space for three mission specialists,including teacher-astronaut BarbaraMorgan as well as Alvin Drew and Tracy Caldwell. "It'sjust a matter of flipping the switch on, flipping the switch off," Abbottsaid of the procedure, which should not impact the crew's busy ISS constructionschedule during their 11-to-14-day mission. The automaticheater control is not functional on that tank," said Matt Abbott, NASA's STS-118lead shuttle flight director.īecause ofthe faulty sensor, the astronauts will need to turn on the heaters via flightdeck controls about once every hour to keep feeding the shuttle's electricity-generatingfuel cells. "Withthe failure we're going to have to use manual heater control. Liquid oxygen is used in Endeavour's fuel cellsto help generate electricity for the shuttle, but must gently boiled into gasby heaters when power is needed. Theimages, as well as data taken from the shuttle crew's heatshield inspection today, will be analyzed by engineers on Earth.Ĭommandedby veteran astronaut Scott Kelly, the STS-118 crew's majortasks include attaching a starboard (S5) truss spacer to the ISS,delivering fresh cargo and shuffling space station components to make way forfurther construction.Įndeavour'screw awoke to an alarm last night, which turned out to be the failure ofan oxygen tank pressure sensor. "The report initially was that you gota spray of debris from this area and of course that brings up images ofColumbia?this was not even remotely of the same magnitude."Ībriefcase-sized piece of foam fell from the shuttle Columbia's fuel tank during its 2003 launch,piercing the heat shield and leading to the loss of the orbiter and itsseven-astronaut crew.ĭuringEndeavour's rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) at 1:53 p.m.EDT (1753 GMT) tomorrow, astronauts aboard the orbital laboratory will takedetailed photographs of the three impact points before the orbiter docks. "Iwould tell you that the picture was extremely underwhelming," Shannon saidof the apparent starboard wing hit.
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