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BETTER LUCK ON SUNDAY... Or should I say, April 7? If space shuttle Discovery doesn’t get off the ground by this Tuesday (March 17), then it will have to wait till the first week of April for another launch attempt. The reason for this is because Russia is planning to launch a Soyuz spacecraft carrying a new crew (Expedition 19) to the International Space Station on March 26. Here’s hoping that NASA is able to resolve what caused today’s launch scrub (a hydrogen gas leak during the fueling of the shuttle’s external tank) and have a successful lift-off this weekend.

Of course, knowing NASA’s luck since the STS-114 "Return To Flight" mission in 2005 [Shuttle launches have been delayed due to problems with foam still coming off of external tanks, issues with the tanks’ engine cut-off (ECO) fuel sensors, a freak hailstorm, the threat of an incoming hurricane, equipment failure onboard the Hubble Space Telescope and concerns over damaged 'flow control valves'. PLEASE don’t make me link to the individual shuttle missions these incidents refer to], that will most likely not be the case. But hey— Prove me wrong NASA. Prove me wrong.


NASA / Bill Ingalls