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US Shuttle Launch Postponed

   VOA News  April 29, 2011
   Space shuttle Endeavour is prepared for launch as the Rotating Service
   Structure (RSS) is rolled back at the launch pad, at Kennedy Space
   Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apr 29 2011

Photo: REUTERS

   Space shuttle Endeavour is prepared for launch as the Rotating Service
   Structure (RSS) is rolled back at the launch pad, at Kennedy Space
   Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apr 29 2011

   The U.S. space agency has postponed the next-to-last space shuttle
   mission for at least two days because of problems with one of the
   shuttle's heating systems.
   NASA made the announcement Friday, just hours before Space Shuttle
   Endeavour had been scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in
   the southern U.S. state of Florida.
   Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said the delay would last at
   least 48 hours.
   Officials had anticipated as many as 750,000 spectators for the launch,
   including U.S. President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their two
   daughters.
   Earlier Friday, Endeavour's external fuel tanks had been loaded with
   almost 2 million liters of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, a process
   that took just over three hours.
   The now delayed mission will be the 25th and final for Endeavour, which
   will be decommissioned and put on permanent display at the California
   Science Center in Los Angeles upon its return to Earth.
   Endeavour and its six-man crew are to deliver a $2 billion scientific
   instrument (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) to the International Space
   Station. The instrument is designed to search for cosmic rays
   throughout the universe.

   Mission Commander Mark Kelly climbs from his T-38 jet trainer at
   Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apr 26 2011

REUTERS

   Mission Commander Mark Kelly climbs from his T-38 jet trainer at
   Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apr 26 2011

   The mission has also attracted attention because of shuttle's commander
   Mark Kelly's wife is U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who is
   recovering from a near-fatal shooting in January during a political
   meeting in her Arizona congressional district. Giffords was expected to
   watch her husband's launch in a secluded area at the Kennedy Space
   Center.
   The crew also includes Italy's Roberto Vitorri, who is flying as a
   member of the European Space Agency.
   NASA's 30-year space shuttle program will end in June after Atlantis'
   final mission to the ISS.
   NASA has started working with four private companies on vehicles to
   replace the space shuttles. Those vehicles could be ready in 2013,
   depending on the availability of government funding.
   President Obama planned to be just the second president to attend a
   shuttle launch. President Bill Clinton was on hand for the 1998 launch
   of space shuttle Discovery, which carried pioneering astronaut John
   Glenn back into space 36 years after he became the first American to
   orbit the Earth.
   Endeavour is the sixth vehicle in the U.S. space shuttle fleet, built
   to replace its sister shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after
   liftoff in January 1986, killing all seven crew members. It was named
   after the historic British naval vessel that explored the South Pacific
   in the 18th century. Endeavour's first flight was on May 7, 1992.

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