Fuel Cell Problem Causes Concern

ANN REAL TIME UPDATE 09.06.06 1805 EDT -- NASA managers, concerned about a problem with one of the three fuel cells aboard the shuttle Atlantis, want more time to study the problem. So, says Program Manager Wayne Hale, engineers and technicians will work on the problem Thursday, in hopes of getting the orbiter off the ground on Friday.

"We've never encountered a fuel cell problem like this before" in the history of the shuttle program, Hale told a NASA briefing Wednesday night.

The problem appears to be either in the wiring to the fuel cell or in the cell itself, another shuttle manager told the briefing. Engineers are focusing their investigation on an AC pump, which supplies coolant to the fuel cell in question.

There is one problem: that AC pump was made in 1976, and accepted into shuttle service in 1981. The company that made it has been bought and sold at least four times... so finding technical drawings for the pump has been difficult, to say the least.

NASA is calling all cars in trying to solve the fuel cell problem. Faced with a hard deadline because of an upcoming Soyuz flight to the International Space Station and, of course, with the 2010 deadline for retiring the shuttle fleet, NASA managers are working hard to get the shuttle into space by Friday.

If they can't, Atlantis will likely remain on the ground until next month at the earliest -- delaying a shuttle program that is up against a hard deadline of its own. NASA is to use the shuttles to complete the ISS... before the orbiters are retired in 2010.

Hale described the effort to research and solve the fuel cell glitch as a great one, saying several NASA centers and the quarantined Atlantis crew itself were involved in the troubleshooting process.

Hale and other NASA managers admitted they're still stumped about the probable cause of a cell fuel pump. Until the probable cause of that glitch is found, Hale says he's not comfortable with launching Atlantis... regardless of any deadlines.

Original Report

ANN REAL TIME NEWS: 0606 EDT -- NASA's fourth attempt to launch the space shuttle Atlantis never saw the light of day Wednesday, as space agency managers scrubbed the mission when early-morning attempts to power up one of three electricity-producing fuel cells went awry.

Reports from Launch Pad 39B indicate one of those fuel cells has developed a short. that was discovered shortly after crews began fueling the shuttle at around 0145 Wednesday morning. The discovery delayed the launch of Atlantis by at least 24 hours.

Shuttle managers, engineers and technicians are racing the clock in troubleshooting the problem. They can try to launch again on Thursday and, if that fails, they can take the unusual step of trying to fly on a third consecutive day. But if that fails, NASA will have to wait until October because of a pending Soyuz launch. That Russian mission is aimed at rotating the crew of the partially completed International Space Station.

But completing that station is also a priority and there again, NASA is up against the clock. The entire space shuttle fleet is slated for retirement in 2010. The station must be completed by that time. The current mission, STS-115, is scheduled to deliver 17.5 tons worth of girders that will hold new solar panels designed to provide much of the power that will eventually run an expanded, completed ISS. So it's no understatement that, where the clock is concerned, NASA is between a rock and a hard place.

FMI: www.nasa.gov