NASA: Endeavour grounded until at least May 10

by Steven Mostyn - May 3 2011, 09:22

After suffering not one but two abandoned launch attempts of the space shuttle Endeavour, officials at NASA have now said the orbiter’s final mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is unlikely to take place until May 10.

According to the U.S. space administration, an electrical problem led to the scrubbing of the Endeavour’s original Friday launch and was not rectified in time to meet a rescheduled attempt on Sunday.

With Endeavour currently sitting immobile at the Kennedy Space Center, a spokesman confirmed on Monday that on-site engineers will require at least another two days to fix the problem.

Mission controllers cancelled Friday’s countdown when fuel line heaters connected to the spacecraft’s hydraulic power system failed to come online—a failing that could have potentially caused a fire onboard if left unchecked.

The May 10 delay is necessary because NASA workers will need to construct and dismantle scaffolding that’s required to access the shuttle’s rear compartment and replace the faulty components.

Once Endeavour finally clears its launch pad and docks with the waiting ISS, its arriving crew of six astronauts will carry out routine maintenance work and also install important science-based instrumentation.

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