NASA's shuttle launch off till late next week
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-16 11:37

NASA said on Friday it would be at least late next week before the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia accident can be launched, after Discovery's liftoff was postponed two days ago because of a fuel sensor problem.

"The simple things did not provide us any resolution to the problem," said deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.

The sensors are designed to shut off the shuttle's three main engines before fuel runs out to avoid damaging them.

A premature shutdown could force a shuttle to make an emergency landing or prevent it from reaching its desired orbit.

While the Kennedy Space Center launch team takes the weekend off, 12 teams of engineers around the United States will be analyzing 200 possible scenarios that could explain the problem with one of Discovery's hydrogen fuel sensors.

During a routine test 2-1/2 hours before the planned liftoff on Wednesday, one of four sensors located in the hydrogen fuel tank failed.

NASA has had problems with these sensors previously, most recently during a test in April, and NASA officials said there might come a time when they would have to discuss flying Discovery without really knowing what had caused the problem.

"We are putting a full court press on this to resolve this anomaly," Hale said during a news conference.

Shuttle engineering manager John Muratore added: "The bottom line is we don't know if we're having a problem in the tank, if we're having a problem in the wiring, if we're having a problem in the electronics box.

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