Article Posted on : - Feb 04, 2009

STS-119 Mission Specialist Richard Arnold participates in an Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or EMU, spacesuit fit check in the Crew Systems Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Photo credit: NASA/JSC

WASHINGTON (BNS): The launch of Space Shuttle Discovery slated for February 12 has been postponed by a week after NASA mission managers reviewed the situation on Tuesday.

The mission managers said that the new date, not earlier than February 19, will be decided after additional analysis and particle impact testing associated with a flow control valve in the shuttle's main engines are carried out.

“The valve is one of the three that channels gaseous hydrogen from the engines to the external fuel tank. One of these valves in shuttle Endeavour was found to be damaged after its mission in November last. As a precaution, Discovery's valves were removed, inspected and reinstalled,” NASA said.

According to NASA, the Space Shuttle Programme will meet on February 10 to assess the analysis. On Thursday next, NASA managers and contractors will finalise the flight readiness review, which began on Tuesday, to address the flow control valve issue and to select an official launch date, an official said.

The 14-day STS-119 mission will deliver the International Space Station's fourth and final set of solar arrays, completing the orbiting laboratory's truss, or backbone. The arrays will provide the electricity to fully power science experiments and support the station's expanded crew of six in May. Altogether, the station's 240-foot-long arrays can generate as much as 120 kilowatts of usable electricity -- enough to provide about forty-two 2,800-square-foot homes with power, NASA said.

Discovery would also carry a replacement distillation assembly for the station's new water recycling system. “The unit is part of the Urine Processing Assembly that removes impurities from urine in an early stage of the recycling process. The Water Recovery System was delivered and installed during the STS-126 mission in November, but the unit failed after Endeavour's departure,” officials said.

The STS 119 mission members include Archambault, Tony Antonelli, Joseph Acaba, Richard Arnold, John Phillips, Steve Swanson and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata. The Japanese astronaut will replace Sandra Magnus aboard the station. She will return home with the Discovery crew after spending three months in space.

Former science teachers Acaba and Arnold are now fully-trained NASA astronauts and they will make their first journey to orbit on the mission and step outside the station to conduct critical spacewalking tasks, NASA said.