Unlucky Discovery grounded until at least February

by Steven Mostyn - Dec 6 2010, 10:00

At this rate, the space shuttle Discovery might never complete its 39th and final mission. More pointedly, a succession of technical issues, weather problems, and structural failings on the orbiter’s external fuel tank have resulted in NASA grounding Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center until late February.

According to the U.S. space administration, delaying the mission until the middle of 2011’s first quarter should provide engineers with enough time to remedy the spate of worrying cracks that have been found on the tank while Discovery has been waiting on its Florida launch pad.

This latest and most significant delay scuppers NASA’s recently revised plans to send Discovery on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) during a short window of opportunity between December 17 and December 20.

However, mission officials this week made the decision to completely forgo a 2010 launch so that thorough tests and analyses can be performed to ensure the external fuel tank is flight-worthy.

As expected, Discovery’s calendar bump has affected the scheduled February 27 launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which has now been pushed back until April 1.

Discovery’s launch has been beset by problems after its original November 5 go-date was scrubbed after a hydrogen leak was located.

While this initial problem was being ironed out, engineers came across damage to the external fuel tank’s foam insulation, which, in turn, led to the discovery of several cracks in the tank’s actual aluminium casing.

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