The Nation - News from July 26, 1988

A mock space shuttle countdown hit a snag, delaying a critical test-firing of Discovery’s three main engines until Sunday. The postponement was announced as engineers assessed methods for fixing a small shuttle gas leak without having to take Discovery off the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., a move that could delay the planned early September launch by as much as two months. The launch team that started the countdown late Sunday quickly fell behind in closing out the shuttle’s rear engine compartment on the pad. Meanwhile, experts were considering several ways to reach and plug the inaccessible leak, from cutting a hole through the shuttle cargo bay wall to running a snake-like tube 20 feet through the gas line.