The crew of the shuttle Columbia – the first to be commanded by a woman – will make another attempt at liftoff tomorrow, after a technical glitch scrapped the initial launch.
The countdown was stopped just six seconds before liftoff early yesterday when a NASA controller detected a spike in the hydrogen readings in a compartment housing the spacecraft’s three main engines.
But an investigation “revealed no abnormal buildup of hydrogen and that the instrument reading had been in error,” said NASA spokesman John Ira Petty.
Shuttle launch director Ralph Roe said faulty sensors were to blame.
Space officials need the two-day break before tomorrow’s scheduled 12:28 a.m. liftoff in order to replace igniters on the pad at the base of the spacecraft and refuel an external tank which holds hydrogen and oxygen, Petty said.
If Columbia doesn’t launch tomorrow, a conflict with other scheduled launches and a major overhaul of the shuttle’s systems could postpone the mission for months.
Eileen Collins, a 42-year-old mother and U.S. Air Force colonel, had to put her dream of being NASA’s first female space shuttle commander temporarily on hold, but took the brief setback in stride.
“The whole crew salutes the vigilance and professionalism of the launch team and we fully support the decision they made,” Collins said after the historic mission was scrubbed at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The launch had been scheduled to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the first moonwalk by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
On that anniversary yesterday, an underwater salvage team brought the long-submerged Liberty Bell 7 space capsule up from the ocean’s depths.
The capsule splashed down with Virgil “Gus” Grissom after a 15-minute suborbital flight on July 21, 1961.
But the bolts that blow open the hatch detonated prematurely, leading the spacecraft to fill up with water and sink.
A helicopter tried to pull it out, but finally had to let go. Grissom nearly drowned.
The capsule, the only U.S.-manned spacecraft lost after a successful mission, was discovered in May, 300 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral and three miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean.
Despite being submerged for 38 years, it was reported in good condition and is to be brought back to Cape Canaveral today.
Grissom, the second American in space, died in the 1967 Apollo 1 launch-pad fire, along with astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee.