Endeavour’s final launch pushed back until at least May 16

The final launch of the space shuttle is now delayed to May 16 at the earliest. This is a third delay in Endeavour’s launch since the shuttle faced problem on April 29.

In a press release, NASA has said that the shuttle launch will not take place before May 16. The shuttle launch was canceled three times i.e. on April 29, May 2, and on May 8.

Repair work in progress
NASA also said that they will organize a press conference on Monday to update on the status of the repair work on hydraulic system.

In a press release NASA said, “Kennedy technicians are continuing work to resolve an issue in a heater circuit associated with Endeavour's hydraulic system that resulted in the launch postponement.

“Technicians determined the failure was inside an aft load control assembly, which is a switchbox in the shuttle's aft compartment, and possibly its associated electrical wiring.”

NASA said that they have yet to find out the original cause of the switchbox failure but they said that the technicians are trying and replacing the hardware which has been the problem in this delay.

The release states, “This weekend, technicians will install and check out new wiring that bypasses the suspect electrical wiring connecting the switchbox to the heaters. They will also run the heaters for up to 30 minutes to verify they are working properly and complete retesting of the other systems powered by the switchbox.”

Endeavour’s delay may affect Atlantis launch
The delay in Endeavour’s launch is affecting the last shuttle launch program. NASA managers are worried that the scheduled flight of Atlantis for June 28 might be affected by this delay.

NASA said that there are launch opportunities available until May 26, but they are targeting the earliest date for the launch.

However, NASA didn’t tell what will happen if the launch will not take place till May 26, but there are assumptions that if that scenario arises Atlantis launch will be pushed back.