快猫短视频

THE discovery of a flattened fuel line on the space shuttle last week has
meant delaying the mission to repair the comatose Hubble Space
Telescope鈥攆or the sixth time.

The repair mission, originally planned for October, will replace the six
gyroscopes Hubble uses to orient itself. The telescope can operate with only
three gyros, but when a fourth failed last month, engineers had to shut Hubble
down.

As 快猫短视频 went to press, NASA engineers were hoping to fit a new fuel
line in time for launch this Thursday (16 December). 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as simple as it
sounds鈥攊t鈥檚 like trying to get a sofa up a staircase,鈥� says Lars
Christensen of the European Space Agency.

The timetable is already extremely tight. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an optimistic schedule, but
it鈥檚 do-able,鈥� says Frank Cepollina, NASA鈥檚 project development manager for
Hubble. Any further slippage in the schedule could delay the launch until
January.

NASA will not let the 10-day mission run over the New Year because of
concerns about the shuttle鈥檚 vulnerability to the millennium bug, because of its
ageing software. 鈥淭he software鈥檚 been checked, but you don鈥檛 take any risks with
something as complicated as the shuttle,鈥� says Christensen. 鈥淭here could still
be some glitches.鈥�

But the millennium bug is not the only reason for avoiding a repair mission
over the holiday period, says Christensen. 鈥淭he overtime bill would be huge.鈥�