Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Today's ATV-2 launch delayed by 24-hours

The launch of the Automated Transfer Vehicle - 2 or ATV-2, named "Johannes Kepler", has been delayed, at least, until tomorrow.

There was an erroneous piece of data coming from the filling of the launcher therefore one of the status panel lights went red during the final countdown. Officials at the ATV Control Center in Toulouse said, "since we had no launch window, there will be no other attempt".

Today's launch of the Ariane 5 rocket has been postponed because there is only a single moment in time for liftoff each day to rendezvous with the International Space Station. Tomorrow's launch time for sending ATV-2 to the International Space Station will be 21:50 GMT.

This unplanned technical problem has stopped the countdown. The countdown has been halted at 22:09 GMT. It was at Minus-4 minutes and 1 second.

If the Ariane 5 does launch tomorrow, the result will be a 24-hour delay to Space Shuttle Discovery's planned liftoff next week. The sliding schedule would see ATV dock with the space station on February 24, a day later than originally scheduled because of today's scrub. Discovery would then launch on February 25.

Sources: ESA, NASA

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