Postpone the space shuttle Discovery

The shuttle has to stay for another 2 months. ( Photo: AP ) Yesterday, US space agency NASA announced that the launch of Discovery, scheduled for May, would be delayed by two months due to an extremely familiar problem: a fuel tank problem.

A similar problem stalled the launch of Discovery last summer - the first return to Columbia's post-disaster sky in 2003.

NASA said it needed time to open the hydrogen fuel tank and replace the sensor with signs of inactivity. They also plan to replace all three other sensors in the fuel tank to ensure safety.

These fuel-control devices are designed to prevent the main engine from running for too long or long enough in air travel. An engine that is turned off at the wrong time can be disastrous - forcing astronauts to find a way to make an emergency landing or to damage the entire engine.

" The most important thing is that we need to fly safely. So replacing these sensors is impossible not to do, " said Wayne Hale, NASA space shuttle program director.

Despite this incident, Hale believed NASA could still launch three space shuttles this year. The job of changing the sensor will take 3 weeks and need a worker to get to the bottom of a vertical fuel tank of 46.6 m high.

The US space agency had to plan closely to prepare for the launch in May and had very little reserve time for technical problems. In recent months, NASA has also focused on modifying the space shuttle's outer fuel tank to prevent insulated fragments from being released during takeoff - the problem that caused the Columbia ship disaster and damaged. network of 7 astronauts.

Last summer, despite two and a half years of continuous improvement and efforts to make the flight safer, a large insulating sponge broke and smashed into Discovery's ship when it was launched.

MT