Launching of Atlas Rocket Set for Today
Crews worked Saturday to repair a helium leak that forced the postponement of the launch of an Atlas rocket, but a NASA spokesman said the problem will be fixed in time for blastoff today.
The rocket holds a government satellite designed to study Earth’s magnetic field.
The launch was scheduled for 3:28 p.m. today from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The leak was caused by a liquid helium vent duct used for engine chill-down that separated in the interstage adapter, the area between the rocket booster and its upper stage, said Jack Isabel, a spokesman for rocket builder General Dynamics Corp. The vent duct was removed, and workers planned to replace it with a new one, he said.
Helium is needed to chill the rocket’s main engines and pressurize the main propulsion system.
“We don’t know what made it separate,” Isabel said.
“We are looking forward to a launch attempt,” he said. “We’re very proud of what’s out there.”
The $189-million Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite, a joint program of NASA and the Defense Department, was to have been deployed in 1987 from the shuttle Challenger. The mission was put on hold after Challenger exploded in January, 1986.
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