back to article NASA scrubs Endeavour launch

NASA scrubbed the planned launch of space shuttle Endeavour early on Saturday morning due to "a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the external fuel tank". The agency explained: "The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. …

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  1. Annihilator
    Thumb Up

    Just as well..

    .. they weren't racing up to save Atlantis!

  2. musoben

    happened last time?

    did a similar leak not cause one of those emergency crews to zoom in for an hour or so a wee bit before the launch of StS 119?

    article a bit short

  3. Sp1derba1t
    Linux

    AHEM!>?

    "although that date poses a "range conflict" with the intended launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter"

    Not to mention THE IPONE 3.0 LAUNCH!!!!!!!

  4. Big Al
    Paris Hilton

    Shuttle or launcher?

    So... the problem is actually with that hug mobile launch pad thingy, rather than with the shuttle itself?

    Paris because nothing would stop her from docking.

  5. Anonymous John

    @ Just as well..

    .The rescue launch would have been on the other launchpad, so the problem may not have occurred.

    And I expect they'd have launched anyway. I was told that they would have launched even though the weather at the time would have precluded a routine launch

  6. frank ly

    Plumbing again

    Why is plumbing so difficult to get right?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ehhh...

    ...hydrogen, schmydrogen. Send 'er up anyway - we got quotas to meet!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @frank ly

    Hydrogen can be a bitch to work with- even airtight seals won't hold necessarily hold it (see the rate of deflation for an H2 balloon over an air one at similar pressure) and you need non-H2 reactive sealing materials.

    However, you'd have thought that NASA could have sorted these problems in 20 / 30 years. Then again the Shuttle never was a serious space vehicle.

  9. Anonymous John

    @ @frank ly

    "Then again the Shuttle never was a serious space vehicle."

    What? It's flown more than any other manned vehicle. It can carry a crew of seven (more than its planned successor). With a massive cargo bay, robot arm, and the capability of allowing the crew to do repairs in Earth orbit.

  10. Dave Walker
    Thumb Down

    @ @@frank ly "Flown more..."

    Nope,

    Soyuz has the Shuttle beat in launches and returns. Although I haven't tallied the total number of people carried; 3 per Soyuz, 7 per Shuttle.

    DX

  11. Anonymous John

    Re @ @@frank ly "Flown more..."

    According to Wikipedia

    Soyuz 102

    Shuttle 134 (eight more planned)

  12. Dave 8
    Coat

    I want to work at NASA

    More TLAs than IT !!!

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