Search A Light In The Darkness

Sunday 12 July 2009

Nasa ready to launch the space shuttle after lightning strike delay

The space agency will try to launch the space shuttle Endeavour later today after a string of delays. Nasa cancelled Saturday's attempt after a spate of lightning strikes near the shuttle's launch pad.

Nine lightning strikes were reported within half a mile of the launch pad.

NASA spokesman George Diller said: 'Any time we have lighting within one mile of the pad we have to go look at the effects if here were any.' Engineers spent the day checking the spaceship's electrical systems and other equipment to make sure there was no damage.

'We've seen nothing so far that indicates anything was actually affected by the lightning strikes,' Mike Moses, the shuttle program manager at the Kennedy Space Centre, told reporters after Saturday's postponement. 'I fully expect this to be a positive story, but we have a lot of equipment that has to be checked and that's what takes time,' he said.

Managers were scheduled to meet early today to review the engineers' findings. If the shuttle is cleared for flight, technicians will begin fuelling the ship about two hours later.

Endeavour's primary cargo is a porch for Japan's $2.4 billion Kibo lab complex. The platform can be used to expose experiments to the open environment of space. The porch is scheduled to be installed during the first of five spacewalks planned during Endeavour's 12-day stay at the outpost, a $100 billion project of 16 nations.

The space station has been under construction 225 miles above Earth for more than a decade. It consists of nearly 26,000 cubic feet of pressurised space, about as much room as a typical four-bedroom house.

The shuttle also will be ferrying a new crewmember to the station. NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra will take over for Japan's Koichi Wakata, who has been aboard the station since March.

Nasa had hoped to fly Endeavour last month, but the mission was rescheduled after hydrogen leaked from a vent line while the ship was being fuelled for flight. (Daily Mail)