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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. At …

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Just as well..

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

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

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!!!!!!!

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.

@ 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

Plumbing again

Why is plumbing so difficult to get right?

Ehhh...

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

Anonymous Coward
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@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.

@ @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.

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@ @@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

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

According to Wikipedia

Soyuz 102

Shuttle 134 (eight more planned)

Coat

I want to work at NASA

More TLAs than IT !!!

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