"When you have technical problems, you delay. After Endeavour, there's only one more space shuttle flight - by Atlantis - before NASA ends the 30-year-old program and retires the fleet to museums.Īstronaut James Kelly, a two-time shuttle pilot, took the news in stride at the press site at Kennedy Space Center. For days, police have been warning of massive traffic delays. "My wife has to work this weekend so we may have missed the chance to see our first launch."Īs many as 700,000 people were expected to crowd nearby coastal communities. "We had planned this for several days," he said. "I really wanted my son to experience this," she said.Īlex Thomas of Jacksonville also was devastated. Tammi Flythe, among the thousands gathered across the Indian River in Titusville with her two children, was crushed. Then the official announcement came over NASA's broadcast lines. There was confusion when the van pulled into the driveway in front of launch control and parked there for several minutes, rather than head straight for the pad three miles away. The news took guests by surprise as well as journalists who were outside watching the astrovan drive by. "We'll fly no orbiter before its time, and today she just wasn't ready to go." "It's the nature of our business," Leinbach said. NASA's silver-colored astrovan did a U-turn at the launch control center and returned them to crew quarters. The six astronauts were en route to the launch pad when the countdown was halted. Leinbach said the delay was "unfortunate" for commander Mark Kelly and his crew. Technicians will have to crawl into the engine compartment to track a suspected electrical short in a power distribution box, and that will take time. Launch director Mike Leinbach said the next try would be Monday at the earliest - and hinted at even a longer delay. "Bummed about the scrub!! But important to make sure everything on shuttle is working properly," her staff said via Twitter. liftoff in private with other astronauts' families. The Arizona congresswoman, who has difficulty walking and talking, was expected to watch the 3:47 p.m. She left her rehabilitation hospital in Houston on Wednesday for the first time to travel to Florida for her husband's launch. Giffords hasn't been seen publicly since the Jan. She is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, and it was not immediately known whether she would stay in Florida for another try or return to Houston. President Obama and his family visited Kennedy Space Center anyway but it was unclear whether he would meet with the Giffords. NASA hopes to try again Monday to launch space shuttle Endeavour on its final voyage. A historic next-to-last space shuttle launch was scratched Friday because of mechanical problems, spoiling a visit from the president and dashing the hopes of the biggest crowd of spectators in years, including the mission commander's wounded wife, Rep.
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