| |
The launch of Endeavour, the NASA space shuttle, has been cancelled for a second time on Wednesday due to the leak of the very dangerous hydrogen gas. This issue came into light only when the ship was being fuelled.
The space shuttle, Endeavour, was scheduled to be launched on Saturday, 13th June, 2009. But the first attempt had to be cancelled due to a similar type of problem. The technicians had them replaced the seals in the hydrogen vent line so that the leak will not be present again.
The next date which has been scheduled by NASA for the launch of Endeavour is on the 11th of July. This information was reported officially from NASA.
The space shuttle was scheduled to take off at 09.40 am GMT from Kennedy Space Centre of Florida, on the 17th of June, Wednesday. The Endeavour will be on a mission from 16 days which is for the installation of a porch built in Japan on the International Space Station.
Even though NASA had expected to launch the space shuttle on Saturday, the sensors had detected the threatening levels of hydrogen being leaked from the vent line. So they cancelled the launch. A similar problem was faced by NASA when Discovery was launched in March. There are plans for launching the Reconnaissance Orbiter between Thursday and Saturday.
The work of the International Space Station is scheduled to e completed by September 30, 2010. Once it is completed, NASA will move on towards the development of a new spaceship.
