Scrubbed shuttle must wait in line at busy spaceport
February 2, 2000
Web posted at: 4:37 PM EST (2137 GMT)
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Rains, rockets put damper on shuttle launch schedule
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- With many rockets jockeying to use the busy Cape Canaveral spaceport, Kennedy Space Center announced Wednesday that the Endeavour can launch no earlier than February 11, two days later than space shuttle managers had hoped.
The Endeavour mission, expected to create the most comprehensive and accurate maps of Earth ever, was grounded from a Monday launch because of storm clouds and computer problems.
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With minutes remaining before lift off, NASA engineers scrubbed the mission after a critical computer component failed a safety check.
Mission technicians will need at least a week to replace one of two so-called Master Event Controllers, electronic boxes that relay commands from the shuttle's onboard computer system to jettison the twin solid rocket boosters and the external fuel tank.
Shuttle controllers wanted to send Endeavour up as early as February 9. The mission has been already delayed four months, in large part because of faulty wiring that grounded the entire shuttle fleet. Yet an unmanned Delta rocket is scheduled to launch the same day.
With several other rockets all in final mission preparations, it seems likely that NASA must settle on the later date.
The next launch attempt for the 11-day Endeavour mission will be no earlier than 12:28 p.m. EST on February 11, according to the Kennedy Space Center.
Endeavour astronauts were headed back to Houston on Wednesday. The six-member crew will return to Kennedy Space Center four days before launch.
Using a sophisticated radar mapping device, the crew will create a detailed 3-D map of about 70-percent of the Earth's surface. Military officials as well as civilian scientists, city planners and highway engineers are among those expected to use the new maps.
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