NASA once again postponed the date of space shuttle Endeavour launch on May 10 due to technical difficulties, the earliest possible launch date for the space shuttle Endeavour is Tuesday. Shuttle managers will meet on Friday to discuss about launch date. NASA discovered that Endeavour's auxiliary power unit had failed. NASA quickly shut things down for further detection then discovered a problem with a box of switches that controls power feeds, known as the aft load control assembly-2(ALCA-2).
The problem in the unit, which performs key functions for the spacecraft's control and landing systems, forced officials to postpone the launch, which was to have been attended by President Barrack Obama and Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s the latter of whom is recovering and undergoing intensive therapy after being shot in the head in January in an assassination attempt and whose husband Mark Kelly heads the shuttle mission.
NASA said that technicians began testing the systems associated with the heaters on Saturday afternoon and continued with that task into the night. The test results indicated that the problem is localized in the ALCA-2 element of the shuttle. The teams are working on a plan to replace the control box and any hardware linked to the defect. The mission's six astronauts quickly left Florida for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, for a few days of "additional training" before returning to Cape Canaveral for a new launch attempt.
Endeavour will carry to the International Space Station is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. It will be used to measure cosmic rays to gain a better understanding of cosmic radiation; a challenge for long-duration spaceflight. It might also help uncover the mysteries involved in dark matter or missing antimatter, NASA said. The 15,000-pound AMS is expected to be operational for the rest of the station's life; at least 10 years.
