NASA Plans Fueling Test For Shuttle Next Week

NASA officials said today that they would begin a fueling test on the Space Shuttle Endeavour to make sure that the hydrogen gas leak, which caused many launch attempts to be aborted, has been plugged.

Engineers believe the leak was being caused by a misaligned plate on the external fuel tank of the Shuttle where the vent line hooks up.

Hydrogen leaks in the area of the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP, postponed Endeavour's launch attempts June 13 and 17, delaying its 16-day flight to the International Space Station. The vent line leading from the external tank away from Launch Pad 39A to the "flame stack," where excess hydrogen gas is burned off during fueling, was disconnected over night.

After the tanking test next week, NASA will attempt to schedule the shuttle launch for July 11th at 7:39PM EDT.

The STS-127 mission will take Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

During the 16 day mission they will complete five spacewalks which will allow them to complete the construction of the Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.