To the disappointment of First Space Fan Barack Obama, NASA scrubbed the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour Friday afternoon. The 20-year-old spacecraft has some sort of electrical malfunction in the two heaters in auxiliary power unit 1. Or maybe it’s the carburetor.
The Endeavour was kind of jalopy to begin with, anyway. It was cobbled together out of spare parts from the 1984-model Discovery and 1985 Atlantis space shuttles.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine
Tags: Endeavour, man in space, manned space effort, NASA, outer space, OV-105, space, space shuttle, STS-134
May 2, 2011 at 12:17 am
Update:
“Why It Scrubbed: NASA Engineers Troubleshoot Endeavour’s Electrical Problems,” George Musser, Scientific American
May 4, 2011 at 8:26 am
[…] The Chinese man-in-space effort began ten years ago, and boasted its first space walk during the 2008 Shenzhou-7 mission. Meanwhile, in Florida, the antiquated Endeavour Space Shuttle is back in the shop. […]