Washington, Sep 18 (Xinhua) Shuttle managers of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have decided to repair a leaking hydraulic seal of the space shuttle Discovery, which may delay its scheduled October flight.
Technicians will begin repair work Wednesday on the leaking hydraulic seal in Discovery’s right main-gear strut, NASA officials said at a meeting Monday.
NASA shuttle managers will assess the ongoing repair work to decide how it might affect Discovery’s Oct 23 target launch date.
The struts act as shock absorbers during the shuttle’s landing. The problem cropped up late last week during the pre-flight inspection by technicians, and the leak may have arisen during the landing of the shuttle’s last mission in December 2006.
To remove the main landing gear strut and replace seals requires disconnecting and replacing the brakes and tyres, disconnecting and reconnecting instruments and other equipment to allow access to the strut.
At the same meeting, NASA also officially decided to add an additional space walk to Discovery’s mission, bringing the total to five. On the extra space walk, astronauts will test tile heat shield repair techniques, extending the mission to 14 days.