Maybe they will launch on Friday -- or have to wait until next month.

NASA hopes to figure out what caused the latest problem keeping Atlantis earthbound: an electrical short in a 30-year-old motor.

If the agency determines by Thursday night that the cause of the short is not serious, NASA can try to launch the shuttle Friday morning.

If it doesn't launch Friday, the space agency may have to wait until late October _ or relax daylight launching rules instituted after the 2003 Columbia accident and try again at the end of September. Once the Russian Soyuz comes back, NASA may attempt a launch as early as Sept. 28 or 29 even though the launch would be in darkness, spokesman Allard Beutel said.

NASA rules say shuttles have to be launched in daylight so that the big external fuel tank can be photographed for evidence of any broken-off pieces of foam of the sort that doomed Columbia.

There is a slight chance of a Saturday launch, but NASA would have to shorten its construction mission on the international space station, something Wayne Hale, space shuttle program manager, has said he would not like to do.

Here's hoping that all can be resolved in time for a Friday launch.

Posted by: Greg at 10:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 215 words, total size 1 kb.