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Friday, December 4, 1998 Published at 05:30 GMT
Endeavour ready to go ![]() Endeavour will try again on Friday morning All systems are now ready for a second attempt to launch the American space shuttle Endeavour in a few hours' time.
BBC World is providing live coverage of Friday's countdown at 0836 GMT.
Replenishment of the craft's giant fuel tanks is said to be proceeding smoothly. 19 seconds
The master alarm is a pair of rectangular red lights in the shuttle cockpit. Endeavour's pilots reported that the alarm went off at the time the shuttle's hydraulic power units were turned on.
"We did not pick up the countdown in time to make the launch window," Shuttle launch control said. "We have stopped the countdown at 19 seconds. The vehicle is in a safe mode."
The Shuttle can go up any day until Tuesday, 8 December, when a scheduled Delta rocket launch would keep it grounded. If that happens, Nasa may decide to delay the mission until after Christmas. Zarya module Endeavour's flight will be the first manned mission in the ISS project. Its task is to deliver the next component for the ISS - a 13-tonne, six-sided connecting hub called Unity.
The Unity module will become the primary docking port for future shuttle missions during construction of the multi-billion-dollar space station. Three US Shuttles and two unmanned Russian rockets will undertake 45 missions to launch and assemble more than 100 components before the station is fully operational in 2004. |
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