Managers at NASA made the call to delay the next launch of the space shuttle Discovery until at least Dec. 17.
Workers are still trying to determine what exactly caused the cracks within the shuttle’s external fuel tank.
On Wednesday, officials were contemplating a launch attempt between Dec. 3 and Dec. 6, but they decided they needed more time to complete an evaluation of the cracked tank. The new window starts from Dec. 17 to Dec. 20 and would mean the shuttle’s six-person crew will spend Christmas Day at the International Space Station.
John Shannon, the NASA shuttle program manager, called December17 a “no-earlier-than” date. He noted there was still a lot of work planned to help NASA understand cracks appeared on the higher portion of the external fuel tank.
“I handed out a lot of homework assignments to the team to go collect data,” Shannon said.
The early-November launch for Discovery was initially delayed because of weather and a leaking hydrogen fuel tank. While workers were trying to repair that leak, they found cracks in the shuttle’s massive orange fuel tank. Inspections and repairs were completed over the weekend, but Shannon said his team is still not sure what caused the cracks in the tank’s vertical support ribs, also known as stringers.
“We have to understand what our exposure is to that problem recurring somewhere else on this tank,” Shannon said. “So we are very carefully going though it and we are passing up some launch opportunities to do that.”