Space shuttle Discovery is set to launch November 1

Last week, engineers found that Discovery had developed a fuel leak.

John Shannon, the space shuttle program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas, says engineers have the situation under control.

"We had a very small leak in the plumbing at a flange fitting, and the team has been working that very hard over the last week," Shannon told reporters Thursday.

"We did some troubleshooting on it, and it looked like the leak stopped."

Discovery will be carrying astronauts on an 11-day mission. It will be the 35th shuttle mission to the International Space Station, or ISS.

Dan Hartman is the space station's integration and mission operations manager. He said Discovery will deliver a final piece to the U.S. segment of the ISS - the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module.

"We've upgraded it and have it ready for its long duration stay on station." Hartman said. "It'll be our final module that we bring up to the International Space Station."

The new module will provide additional research and storage space.

NASA says Discovery has flown into space more than any other craft, with 38 trips and 352 days in orbit. Discovery has traveled more than 230 million kilometers and circled Earth 5,628 times since it was first launched in 1984.

The Discovery shuttle has been part of countless milestones, too. It carried the first woman to ever pilot a spacecraft, the oldest person to fly in space, the first African-American to perform a spacewalk, the first cosmonaut to fly on a U.S. spacecraft and the first sitting member of Congress to fly in space.

Discovery will end its career carrying another history-making "passenger" - Robonaut2, the first humanoid robot to fly in space.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
station at NASA
Shuttle at NASA
Shuttle at NASA
Watch NASA TV via Space.TV
Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com

Boeing Ships LightSquared's SkyTerra One Mobile ComSat To Launch Site Hylas-1 Satellite Readied For Launch From European Spaceport ILS Proton Successfully Launches XM-5 Satellite Ariane Moves Into Final Phase Of Globalstar Soyuz 2 Launch Campaign 2013 Earliest Launch Date For China Mars Mission A One-Way Trip To Mars Would Be Affordable Curiosity Builds A New Mars Rover Opportunity's Eastward View After Sol 2382 Drive LRO Detects Surprising Gases In LCROSS Lunar Impact Plume Moon's 'treasure chest' includes silver : study LRO Supports Historic Lunar Impact Mission NASA to buy private moon data Reaching The Mid-Mission Milestone On The Way To Pluto New Horizons Student Dust Counter Instrument Breaks Distance Record Nitrogen Methane Dominate Icy Surface Of Eris The Longest Space Mission Planets Discovered Around Elderly Binary Star Astronomers Find Weird, Warm Spot On An Exoplanet New techniqe aiding planet searches Planet Hunters No Longer Blinded By The Light DLR Launches 'STERN' Rocket Programme For Students U.K. predicts 'spaceplane' in 10 years Successful Static Testing Of L 110 Liquid Core Stage Of GSLV 3 Danish rocketeers abort launch attempt The International Future In Space International Crews for Shenzhou China Eyes Extended Mission Beyond Moon China's second lunar probe enters moon's orbit: state media New Cometary Phenomenon Greets Approaching Spacecraft When Is A Comet Not A Comet Comet Hartley 2 Visible In Morning Sky This Week Hartley 2 Visible In Night Sky