Discovery's mission to service the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was due to blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, late Saturday after suffering five delays since it was originally scheduled for mid-October.

The decision to put the launch on "indefinite hold," CNN said, was taken at a meeting of space shuttle mission managers Wednesday.

The team will spend 24 hours analyzing the problem and announce a final decision Thursday on when to launch, CNN said.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration believes the crushed hydrogen line could take five days to repair, but nobody is certain how long the repair will take given its unprecedented nature, the news service added.

Concerns with possible Y2K computer glitches after midnight December 31, make it necessary for the Discovery to be launched no later than December 17 so that the 10-day mission can be completed before the Y2K deadline, NASA said.

An earlier glitch delaying the Discovery mission was a frayed cable cover in one of the principal motors.

Discovery will carry seven astronauts into space, two of whom are with the European Space Agency (ESA), Claude Nicollier of Switzerland and Jean-Francois Clervoy of France. During the 10-day mission, the astronauts will do four space walks, each lasting six hours.

The mission became urgent after a gyroscope failed on the Hubble, taking it out of commission. Four of the six gyroscopes on Hubble have failed in all. A minimum of three gyroscopes are necessary for the telescope to effectively gather information.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005
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