16 March 2009

NASA was eased Sunday, the hydrogen leak occurred Wednesday had not repeated during the filling of the external tank of the shuttle Discovery, which should enable a launch in the evening to the International Space Station.

"We passed the point (filling in) of the reservoir where the leak occurred was" Wednesday, leading then to cancel the launch, said the official commentator of the television Nasa, George Diller.

"We have seen no evidence of leakage and will be able to continue preparations" for a launch, he said, adding that the heads of mission are "now very confident in the fact that it was not a problem. "

Weather forecasts continue to give 80% chance of favorable conditions in the evening.

Filling the huge external tank with almost two million liters of combustion formed mostly of liquid hydrogen at -252 degrees Celsius and liquid oxygen, began to 14H20 GMT. The operation lasted three hours.

Officials of the mission were waiting anxiously as the reservoir is filled to about 98% to see if the leak occurred Wednesday at the point of connection of the external mechanism of filling or not to be repeated.

They were even more nervous than engineers, which replace all suspect parts, could not determine the source of the leak Wednesday that forced NASA to postpone the flight.

If the countdown continues to run normally, the shuttle with seven astronauts on board including a Japanese away from the shooting at the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral (Florida, south-east) at 19h43 local (23H43 GMT ) in the middle of a launch window of ten minutes.

NASA will not launch Discovery beyond Tuesday, the last day possible for a shuttle flight to the orbiting outpost without interfering with docking scheduled for March 28 of a Russian Soyuz.

The launch Sunday reduced to 14 to 13 days duration of the flight and force NASA to eliminate the fourth exit orbital expected, without affecting the mission objectives.

The launch, which had already been postponed four times since February 12, will be the first shuttle flight this year.

It will deliver and install the fourth and final double pair of antennas of the solar station. The ISS will then all the power needed to conduct scientific experiments in laboratories European Columbus and Japanese Kibo delivered to the ISS in 2008.

Voltage, which will spend a total of 90 to 120 kilowatts, will also double to six crewmembers to the ISS in May.

Discovery also will deliver a spare part for the new machine to recycle astronaut urine into drinking water, which was delivered by Endeavor in November but has never really worked.

Arrived aboard Discovery, astronaut Koichi Wakata will be the first Japanese to be part of a crew of the ISS. It will replace Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus American in the Station since November 2008.

Nine flights are scheduled until September 2010 - planned date of retirement of the three orbiters - to complete the construction of the ISS, perform one last mission to Hubble telescope maintenance and scientific experiments.

The ISS is a $ 100 billion involving 16 countries.

----------------

CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP)