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Leak scrubs shuttle launch for a week

Space shuttle Endeavour waits on the launch pad
Space shuttle Endeavour waits on the launch pad

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Space Shuttle Endeavor will deliver a truss that will serve as the backbone for the international space station. CNN's Miles O'Brien reports (November 11)
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- NASA postponed the Monday morning launch of the space shuttle Endeavour after mission technicians discovered an oxygen leak in the crew cabin, flight managers said.

The launch date was rescheduled for no earlier than Monday, November 18.

Endeavor was supposed to launch at 12:58 a.m. Monday on a mission to bring a $390 million truss and replacement crew to the international space station. The new station crew of three will replace a trio that has been onboard the orbiting outpost since June.

NASA officials said they would try to fix the shuttle on the pad. They will have to open the shuttle bay doors and look inside to find the leak.

The shuttle has two oxygen supply systems that supply 100 percent oxygen to the cabin and to the orange suits the astronauts wear. The leak happened in one of the two systems.

Though it was relatively small, the leak was enough to "get their attention," NASA said, and there were concerns the leak would get worse in the shaky conditions of launch.

The system involved had passed a leak test several weeks ago when the shuttle was in the hangar.

"This leak appeared out of the blue," said Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore on Sunday. "We wanted to know exactly why this happened."

The delay means the astronauts and cosmonauts will now be in space for the Thanksgiving holiday.

-- From CNN Space Producer Dave Santucci and CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien



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