Alan Pickup's Spacewatch

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 08:07 in Astronomy & Space

A hydrogen fuel leak from the shuttle Endeavour meant that its launch last Saturday had to be cancelled. The flight to the International Space Station (ISS) is now scheduled to lift off at 10:40 BST today. The mission, which carries the 500th person to reach orbit, is to be a busy one with five spacewalks involving four astronauts. One of its seven crew members is also to exchange places with one of the six who now staff the ISS. Today's shuttle launch also delays the launch of Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and its companion, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) from today until tomorrow evening UK time. LRO is to spend at least a year in a low pole-to-pole orbit about the Moon. The mission will measure the heat and other radiation from the lunar surface, provide 3-D mapping and high resolution...

Read the whole article on The Guardian - Science

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