MMT to Meet Wednesday on Electrical Issues
Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:21:01 PM PDT
The Prelaunch Mission Management Team wants to give engineers more time to look deeply into two electrical issues from a main engine computer controller that cropped up this morning. Therefore, the launch of space shuttle Discovery on STS-133 has been delayed until at least Thursday. Mike Moses, chair of the MMT, said the problems are believed to be tied to a circuit breaker in the shuttle's cockpit.
Rather than rush the shuttle launch team through an analysis and launch cycle quickly, Moses said he opted to let the engineers work throughout the night on the issue without having to worry about an early morning tanking and Wednesday afternoon launch. The MMT will meet again Wednesday at 2 p.m. EDT and then decide whether to try to launch Thursday. A liftoff Thursday would be at 3:29 p.m. [1929 UTC]
A launch on Thursday is problematic due to a weather front moving into the KSC region. Weather will have a much higher chance of preventing launch.
