Gas glitch grounds shuttle relaunch

[Guest Glenn]

Source: AAP

 

AUSTRALIAN astronaut Andy Thomas, his hands waving like an excited schoolkid, happily climbed into the NASA space shuttle Discovery yesterday only to find out the flight was cancelled.

 

In another blow to the US's embattled space agency, a minor instrument malfunction caused the much-anticipated relaunch of the shuttle to be postponed.

 

The first shuttle mission since the February 2003 loss of the Columbia - which blew to pieces on re-entering the Earth's atmosphere above Texas, instantly killing the seven crew - has been put on hold until at least Sunday, Australian time.

 

But it could be much longer, as scientists have pledged to put the ageing space vehicle Discovery through exhaustive tests to ensure its safety.

 

The decision was made to scrap the launch less than two hours and 20 minutes before the scheduled lift-off at Florida's Cape Canaveral after a fuel sensor in an external tank showed empty although the tank was full.

 

"All I can say is, shucks," said Wayne Hale, the shuttle program's deputy manager. "We ran out of gas."

 

Frustratingly for NASA, it was the same problem encountered on Discovery during testing in April. However, engineers were at a loss to explain its cause.

 

Adelaide-born Dr Thomas, a rocket scientist and veteran of three prior voyages into space, emerged from Discovery after the launch was called off with his head still poking out of his orange spacesuit and a smile on his face.

 

His hands were not waving and he was sweaty from a black hood he had just removed, but as he stood just outside the door to the shuttle he joked with NASA technicians helping him disembark.

 

Every scrubbed shuttle launch costs US taxpayers more than $US600,000 ($798,000).

 

NASA has a relatively small window left to launch Discovery. If the shuttle does not launch by the end of this month, it will not be tried again until September because of the positioning of the International Space Station and the need for a daylight launch in order to properly photograph the take-off.

 

Discovery will be in space for just over 12 days, with the principal objective of bringing parts for the space station, the construction of which is well behind schedule and over budget, costing more than $US100 billion.

 

The three remaining space shuttles, which were made with 1970s technology and cost $US500 million to launch into space each time, will spend the next five years ferrying parts to the space station so it can be completed.

 

After that, about 2010, the space shuttle will be retired and NASA hopes to have a new and less expensive re-usable space orbiter ready.