The US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on November 11 that engineers had discovered two cracks in the space shuttle Discovery's outer fuel tank after having to postpone the ship until the end November after hydrogen gas leak error.
Around the Discovery spacecraft. (Source: NASA)
Cracks in the aluminum rod cover separating liquid oxygen gas tanks with liquid hydrogen gas cylinders were discovered at the end of November 10 when engineers removed heat-insulating foam pieces from outside containers.
According to NASA , these cracks are about 23cm long and this leads experts to doubt the possibility of making the final launch for Discovery on the International Space Station (ISS) this year as planned. out.
A NASA statement said: " Engineers are reviewing the image of the cracks to determine the best repair. " NASA says that if these cracks can be repaired, the launch is possible. coming to Discovery not earlier than November 30 (0905GMT), but this can still change.
Earlier, NASA announced on November 2 due to technical problems, the time of launching the Space Shuttle Discovery onto the International Space Station will be back at least one day compared to the expected time.
According to NASA, the backup controller of one of the ship's three main engines is malfunctioning and technical experts need more time to troubleshoot and evaluate abnormal data.
According to the initial assessment, these technical problems may be related to the circuit breaker in Discovery's cockpit.
This is the second time this week, NASA is forced to back off the shuttle launch time to ISS due to technical errors. During the previous malfunction, Discovery ship leaked gas and had to postpone for two days.
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