spacetoday.net: Shuttle launch postponed to Wednesday

Posted: Fri, Aug 3, 2007, 6:27 PM ET (2227 GMT)

Work required to fix an air leak in the shuttle Endeavour has pushed its launch back 24 hours, NASA announced Friday afternoon. The shuttle, which was to launch on mission STS-118 Tuesday evening, is now scheduled for launch at 6:36 pm EDT (2236 GMT) Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center. Efforts by technicians to track down and fix an air leak in the shuttle's cabin were successful, but NASA postponed the launch to give workers additional time to catch up on other pre-launch preparations. The shuttle launch delay also gives NASA an additional opportunity to launch the Phoenix Mars mission should its launch, still scheduled for Saturday morning, be delayed.