Chief
08-04-2007, 06:39 PM
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts118/070803crewarrival/
The shuttle Endeavour's seven-member crew flew to the Kennedy Space Center today to prepare for launch next week on a space station assembly mission. Commander Scott Kelly said the astronauts agreed with the decision earlier today to delay launch 24 hours, from Tuesday to Wednesday, to get back on schedule after unexpected work to replace a suspect valve in the shuttle's crew cabin pressurization system.
"It's great to be in Florida for launch week," Kelly said at the shuttle runway. "I would like to congratulate all the orbiter teams here at the Kennedy Space Center for the really outstanding effort they gave trying to get Endeavour ready to go for a Tuesday launch. They had some real challenges with the weather, we understand the decision to delay until Wednesday and we agree with it completely."
Joining Kelly on the runway were pilot Charles Hobaugh, Tracy Caldwell, flight engineer Rick Mastracchio, Canadian flier Dave Williams, Al Drew and educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup in the original Teacher in Space Program.
**SCHNIPP**
A 24 hour delay is nothing comared to what it could have been...had this been thr right malfunction it could have meant a much more significant delay. As it is, we may have a lunch this week after all!
;D
The shuttle Endeavour's seven-member crew flew to the Kennedy Space Center today to prepare for launch next week on a space station assembly mission. Commander Scott Kelly said the astronauts agreed with the decision earlier today to delay launch 24 hours, from Tuesday to Wednesday, to get back on schedule after unexpected work to replace a suspect valve in the shuttle's crew cabin pressurization system.
"It's great to be in Florida for launch week," Kelly said at the shuttle runway. "I would like to congratulate all the orbiter teams here at the Kennedy Space Center for the really outstanding effort they gave trying to get Endeavour ready to go for a Tuesday launch. They had some real challenges with the weather, we understand the decision to delay until Wednesday and we agree with it completely."
Joining Kelly on the runway were pilot Charles Hobaugh, Tracy Caldwell, flight engineer Rick Mastracchio, Canadian flier Dave Williams, Al Drew and educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup in the original Teacher in Space Program.
**SCHNIPP**
A 24 hour delay is nothing comared to what it could have been...had this been thr right malfunction it could have meant a much more significant delay. As it is, we may have a lunch this week after all!
;D