Engineers found a leak in a small hydrogen line Thursday that may have been responsible for delaying the shuttle Columbia's launch, raising the possibility of a takeoff try as early as next week, sources said.
But officials said it was too early to say whether a "fix" was at hand and that additional testing was required. Even so, shuttle engineer Henry Pohl at the Johnson Space Center in Houston said he was optimistic."It looks to us like it would explain everything we saw the other night," Pohl said. "But they still have to get quantitative measurements so we can determine how bad it is."
NASA engineers worked through Wednesday and into Thursday searching for the source of a hydrogen leak during fuel loading Tuesday that forced agency managers to stop the shuttle's countdown to launch on a 10-day astronomy mission.
Because of the nature of the leak, engineers suspected trouble with a 17-inch hydrogen fuel line fitting where the big propellant line enters the belly of the shuttle from its external tank. But tests overnight did not locate any leaks in that area.
As the morning wore on, however, engineers began looking into other areas, and officials said a leak was found in a small hydrogen line used to sense fuel pressure.
He said engineers planned to tighten the connector and then retest the line for leakage. If the leak does not reappear, NASA could be able to retarget Columbia's launch for the middle of next week.
If that does not solve the problem, NASA would have little choice but to roll Columbia back to its hangar for repairs, a move that would delay liftoff three weeks or more.
Columbia's seven-member crew flew back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston Wednesday to await word on how long the 36th shuttle flight will be delayed.
Columbia skipper Vance Brand, 59, co-pilot Guy Gardner, 42, John "Mike" Lounge, 43, Robert Parker, 53, Jeffrey Hoffman, 45, and civilian astronomers Ronald Parise, 39, and Samuel Durrance, 46, plan to spend 10 days in orbit to study high-energy astronomical targets.