Posted: Fri, Mar 18, 2005, 7:18 AM ET (1218 GMT)
NASA officials said Thursday that the failure of a gyroscope on the International Space Station earlier this week will not force them to delay the May launch of the shuttle Discovery, although other problems could push back the launch of the first post-Columbia shuttle mission. ISS program manager Bill Gerstenmaier said the gyro failure, as well as intermittent problems with an oxygen-generating unit on the station, are not serious enough to force them to delay the shuttle launch. NASA is tentatively planning to repair the gyro by replacing a faulty circuit breaker during a spacewalk later this year; a similar repair was performed to the same gyro last year. However, delays preparing Discovery could force the May 15 launch date to slip by at least several days. The shuttle was scheduled to roll to the launch pad this week, but that move has been delayed until the first week of April as launch preparations lagged behind schedule.
