Sat, Aug 04, 2007
Liftoff Now Scheduled August 8
Liftoff will come a little later for Endeavour. NASA
announced Friday the agency will postpone Endeavour's scheduled
launch by 24 hours, in order to give the shuttle processing team
some extra time in readying the orbiter.
The new launch time is targeted for Wednesday, August 8 at 1836
EDT. The countdown will begin Sunday at 2000 local time.
NASA says the extra day will provide engineers some extra
breathing room as they work to complete the processing of the
orbiter... a task made a bit more challenging than hoped for this
week by storms around Kennedy Space Center, as well as technical
glitches on Endeavour.
The day brought some good news, as well. An earlier leak in
Endeavour's crew cabin has been fully resolved. The problem was
traced to one of two positive pressure-relief valves that ensure
that the cabin does not become over-pressurized.
The suspect valve was removed and replaced with a valve from
Atlantis. Another round of testing was successfully completed
Thursday night, with no leakage detected.
Led by Commander Scott Kelly, the STS-118 flight crew arrived at
Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility this week. The
seven astronauts will spend the remaining days until launch
undergoing final prelaunch preparations, including suit fit checks,
briefings, medical exams and landing practice in the shuttle
training aircraft.
"I would like to congratulate all the orbiter teams here at the
Kennedy Space Center for the really outstanding effort they gave
trying to get Endeavour ready to go for a Tuesday launch," said
Commander Scott Kelly upon arriving at the spaceport.
The 22nd flight to the International Space Station, STS-118 will
be the first flight for Endeavour since 2002, and the first mission
for Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan, the teacher-turned-astronaut
whose association with NASA began more than 20 years ago.
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