Hydrogen Leak Delays Launch of Space Shuttle
The space shuttle Columbia began leaking explosive hydrogen fuel just hours before liftoff Thursday, forcing NASA to postpone the science mission for a week.
Liftoff tentatively was rescheduled for Oct. 5 to allow NASA to replace the leaky valve in main engine No. 1--a new, redesigned engine.
Hydrogen gas began leaking from the engine into the air after NASA began filling the shuttle’s external tank. The tank holds 528,000 gallons of hydrogen and oxygen, two-thirds of that hydrogen, to drive the three main engines.
The seven astronauts had not yet boarded Columbia for their 16-day flight. The astronauts planned to grow protein and semiconductor crystals, set fires and jiggle drops of fluid in zero gravity, measure shuttle vibrations and tend to potato plants.
The cause of the first major shuttle fuel leak in five years was not immediately known.
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