The Nation : Shuttle Launch Postponed Over Pumps

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said it is delaying the launch of the shuttle Discovery from late February to mid-March to replace three suspect turbopumps whose failure could be fatal to a shuttle and its crew. The announcement came after a meeting of shuttle managers who debated for several days whether to pull the high-speed turbopumps, which transform liquid oxygen into gas in the spaceship’s main engines. Officials said Discovery will be transported to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Friday and switching of the pumps will be done there along with other operations. The three turbopumps became questionable when engineers discovered two tiny cracks in a bearing unit in one of Atlantis’ pumps after it completed the second post-Challenger mission in December.