Spacers

Penultimate Discovery On Easter Monday

Space Shuttle Discovery has been cleared to launch on its penultimate mission on April 5th - Easter Monday. NASA mission managers announced the date after an intensive flight review that took into account a potentially mission threatening leaky helium pressurization valve on Discovery. The launch date for Discovery on the STS-131 mission is set for 6:21am EDT on Easter Monday, April 5th.


After a system test that showed the valve had stuck, tests were conducted that subsequently showed the reading was a one-off and couldn't be reproduced. The impact of the valve failing during the mission is low, so the decision to proceed was taken after a unanimous vote by mission managers. Another minor issue of a potentially loose ceramic inserts around the heat shield tiles of the flight deck was also deemed low risk.

Keep an eye on Spacers as the launch date approaches.

SpaceHead