Shuttle mission may be delayed

December 2, 1999
Web posted at: 2:24 a.m. EST (0724 GMT)

From Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien

HOUSTON (CNN) -- NASA managers on Wednesday said the oft-delayed flight of space shuttle Discovery may be postponed yet again because of wiring inspections.

That news came after an afternoon senior management review of the Discovery's mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Officials now believe the most likely targeted launch date for Discovery will be Saturday, December 11 -- but managers are still hoping Discovery can make the last announced launch date of December 9.

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Workers at the Kennedy Space Center are continuing a deliberate check of the wiring in the aft section of Discovery's orbiter. The work is expected to take at least 48 hours longer than initially expected.

NASA has previously said it would launch Discovery on its planned 10-day mission no later than December 14.

The flight plan calls for two pairs of astronauts to conduct a series of four daring spacewalks to repair and improve several components on the $6 billion Space Telescope.

The space agency wants the orbiter on the ground well before any potential problems crop up as a result of the Y2K computer glitch.

Should the launch date move past December 14, mission managers are now contemplating eliminating the fourth -- and final -- planned spacewalk and an on-orbit, off-duty day for the crew in order to compress the mission so that Discovery can be back on the ground before the new year.

Right now, the Space Telescope is scientifically useless after the loss of four of its precision gyroscopes, which help the telescope aim. The gyros allow Hubble to focus on distant objects with pinpoint accuracy.

Assuming Discovery launches this year, it would be only the third shuttle mission of 1999. This is the lightest shuttle flight schedule since 1988, when the orbiters returned to flight after the Challenger disaster.

The shuttle fleet was grounded after the last mission in July. A short circuit seconds after liftoff of Columbia prompted a fleet-wide wiring inspection.