Due to Weather, Shuttle Ties Own Record for Launch Delays

For a record-tying sixth time, NASA delayed the launch of the space shuttle Columbia on Sunday because of thick, low clouds that just wouldn’t budge.

Shuttle managers said they would try again Thursday, at the earliest.

Launch controllers waited as long as possible to send Columbia and its seven astronauts on their way but finally gave up early in the afternoon. By then, it was getting dark at the emergency landing strips overseas and the weather at the launch site was not improving.

Commander Kenneth Bowersox and his crew waited in vain more than five hours for the sky to clear.

NASA sent the astronauts to the pad an hour later than planned to extend the launch window into the afternoon. But it didn’t help: A cold front stalled over the Kennedy Space Center and kept a cloud cover overhead.

Columbia, NASA’s oldest shuttle, tied its own record for launch scrubs. A satellite-delivery mission by Columbia was delayed six times before finally getting under way in January, 1986, almost a month late. This science mission already is three weeks late.

NASA cannot launch Columbia before Thursday because of a military rocket launch scheduled for Tuesday. The Air Force, which tracks all launches for safety purposes, needs one to two days between flights to modify its systems. If the unmanned rocket launch slips to Wednesday, then Columbia’s seventh launch try will slide to Friday, said shuttle launch manager Loren Shriver.

This was the second weather delay for the 16-day laboratory-research mission. Hurricane Opal forced a postponement as did a slew of mechanical breakdowns: a leaky engine valve, sluggish hydraulics, a failed computer signal-relay unit. Yet another delay was caused by a last-minute engine inspection.