Fuel Tank Problem Scrubs Shuttle Launch

2 Of 4 Fuel Tank Sensors Go Offline At Same Time, So Atlantis Won't Lift Off At Least Until Friday

(CBS/AP)  With fueling 80 percent completed, two of the four sensors on the space shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank went offline at the same time, and NASA decided to scrub the liftoff.

Launch Director Doug Lyons said they're trying to figure out if it's a connector, the wiring or the sensors themselves.

"Preliminary indications are that we have an open circuit there," Lyons said. "But again, we have to do some additional engineering analysis and evaluation to see if that is the problem and more importantly, where that open circuit is. Whether it's a connector, a splice line or something of that nature and once we isolate that, we can determine the appropriate corrective action."

If the sensors allow the external fuel tank to run dry, the space shuttle could explode, says CBS News correspondent Peter King.

"These sensors in the bottom of the fuel tank tell the shuttle's main engines when to shut down," King reports. "These sensors caused several delays in the first post-Columbia flights, and the question is, can this be fixed on the pad or do they have to roll Atlantis back to the Vehicle Assembly Building? That would mean delaying the flight until at least January."

NASA began fueling the space shuttle Atlantis at daybreak amid near-perfect weather. The launch had been scheduled for 4:31 p.m. EST.

There's only one launch window per day, says King, but NASA has until Dec. 13 to launch the shuttle.

After the drama of changed plans and elaborate fixes during the last shuttle flight, Atlantis commander Steve Frick tells King (audio) he's ready for anything once the shuttle launches.

"We have to think about what might happen, but we stay focused on what we're planning on doing, hoping to do, what we're really knowledgeable in, and then we'll deal with what happens," the astronaut said.

"We have to play the cards we're dealt - we talked about that amongst the crew - you never know what cards are going to show up when you get there," agreed astronaut Rex Walheim. "The situation may not be exactly like you planned, and so we have to rely on our training to have the skills and do the types of tasks that we need to do."

Each of the year's previous shuttle countdowns have ended with an on-the-dot departure, and NASA hopes to make it four in a row with Atlantis. It will carry a crew of seven and Europe's long-awaited space station lab, named Columbus.

About 750 Europeans connected to the scientific laboratory - a $2 billion project begun nearly a quarter-century ago - were in town for the launch and expected to gather at the space center.

Columbus is "our cornerstone, our baby, our module, our laboratory," said Alan Thirkettle, the European Space Agency's station program manager.

"This module is the first step in the process of making the international space station an international research lab, to do the science that the thing is being built for," says CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood. "So I think on both sides of the ocean folks are very eager to get Columbus into orbit and hooked up."

Columbus will be the second laboratory added to the international space station. NASA's Destiny lab made its debut in 2001, and Japan's huge lab Kibo - which means hope - will go up in three sections beginning on the very next shuttle mission in February.

Columbus adds another 2600 cubic feet of work and living space to the every growing space station, reports King.

"I tell you, us shuttle guys, we're just hoping not to get lost," said Frick.

Scientific work will start almost immediately inside Columbus, which is essentially packaged and ready to go.

Harwood says this will be an active shuttle mission.

"Three pretty busy spacewalks to get Columbus all hooked up properly, and then, if they can, they're going to extend two days to add a fourth spacewalk to go out and inspect the solar array, that rotary joint, remember, from last mission, that had some contamination in it," said Harwood. "They want to go take a real close look at that to figure out what might be causing that problem."

French astronaut Leo Eyharts will spend three months aboard the international space station. Not only will he be the first astronaut to work in the new Columbus laboratory, he tells CBS News he's bringing the ingredients for several French meals as a treat for his crewmates.

Eyeharts sees Columbus as "the start of our permanent work in space" and calls being chosen for the mission "a great honor."

Thirkettle sees Columbus as a stepping stone for Europe to the U.S.-led moon expeditions planned for late in the next decade. To gear up for that, NASA is under presidential orders to finish the space station and retire its three remaining shuttles in 2010.

Counting Atlantis' upcoming flight, that leaves 12 shuttle missions to the space station and one, next summer, to the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said he doesn't expect that number to change, which means some space station equipment and experiments will never make it up.

Aside from the interruption caused by the 2003 Columbia tragedy, the actual building of the space station in orbit has gone well, Griffin said. That's in stark contrast to the space station's planning and development, which dragged on for years and contributed to Columbus' prolonged grounding.

"We the United States, as the senior partner in the space station coalition, did not plan it well," Griffin said on the eve of Columbus' launch. "It has taken far too long and I'll just leave it at that."

[demslie]

You libs and dems are such self appointed know-it-alls. The GAO reports that just the fraud, waste and abuse in the Social Services sector is above 45 Billion: three times the entire NASA budget. Seems like a lot of poor people could be feed if you libs would pay attention to something other than hating George Bush.

[downtowner97]

The shuttle is 30 times as expensive to launch and far less reliable than the Russian launch vehicles. We sub out our energy to Saudi Arabia, why not sub out our space launches to Russia?

Imagine the thousands of homeless people who could be sheltered and the hundreds of thousands without health insurance who could be insured with the money used to send a select few into orbit. This country has no moral foundation.

[fstop100]

Our tax dollars at work! such a waste of money.