Wednesday, February 16, 2011

European Cargo Spacecraft Launch Delay Not Affecting STS-133 Yet

This afternoon’s scheduled launch of the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 (ATV-2) “Johannes Kepler” from Kourou, French Guiana was scrubbed. A preliminary assessment indicates there may have been erroneous data on the flow of fuel through the manifolds on the first stage of the Ariane 5 rocket that resulted in the scrub. ESA engineers and managers will evaluate the issue before officially rescheduling the launch. NASA Television coverage Wednesday would begin at for a liftoff at While there is the potential for an ATV launch slip to affect next week’s targeted launch date of space shuttle Discovery, today’s scrub does not automatically impact the STS-133 mission. If ATV-2 launches Wednesday, then Discovery’s target date would move to Feb. 25. However, a longer ATV slip beyond Friday would result in STS-133 remaining on track for its targeted launch on Feb. 24 at

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