Shuttle cleared for April 5 launch
Posted: Sat, Mar 27, 2010, 9:03 AM ET (1303 GMT)
NASA managers gave their approval Friday to plans to launch the space shuttle Discovery on April 5. Discovery will launch at 6:21 am EDT (1021 GMT) Monday, April 5, on the 13-day STS-131 mission to the ISS, delivering supplies to the station. There had been earlier concerns that a problem with a leaky helium valve in one of the orbiter's OMS pods could delay the launch, but managers concluded that the valve is normally open most of the time in orbit and that other subsystems would prevent pressurization problems with the thruster system. The shuttle mission will be the first of the final four shuttle missions on the current manifest, with the final shuttle mission scheduled for launch in September.
NASA managers gave their approval Friday to plans to launch the space shuttle Discovery on April 5. Discovery will launch at 6:21 am EDT (1021 GMT) Monday, April 5, on the 13-day STS-131 mission to the ISS, delivering supplies to the station. There had been earlier concerns that a problem with a leaky helium valve in one of the orbiter's OMS pods could delay the launch, but managers concluded that the valve is normally open most of the time in orbit and that other subsystems would prevent pressurization problems with the thruster system. The shuttle mission will be the first of the final four shuttle missions on the current manifest, with the final shuttle mission scheduled for launch in September.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, February 1
INNOSPACE Initiates Joint Investigation with Brazil’s CENIPA Regarding HANBIT-Nano Mission
INNOspace — 12:03 pm ET (1703 GMT) NASA’s Mission Support Future Architecture Program
NASA — 11:39 am ET (1639 GMT) The Milky Way is embedded in a ‘large-scale sheet’ and this explains the motions of nearby galaxies
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy — 11:31 am ET (1631 GMT) Streaks on Mercury show: Mercury is not a "dead planet"
Univ. of Bern — 11:31 am ET (1631 GMT) NanoXplore and STMicroelectronics deliver European FPGA for space missions
STMicroelectronics — 11:27 am ET (1627 GMT) |
