NASA Investigating Possible Shuttle Oxygen Leak |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Sunday, 18 December 2005 19:54 |
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NASA is investigating the possibility that there was an oxygen leak during the launch of the space shuttle Discovery in July, the first flight since the space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas in 2003.
Engineers have found possible evidence of high concentrations of oxygen in the rear engine compartment, approximately two minutes after lift-off. The evidence comes from six catch bottles that gather samples of air within the engine compartment during flight. Two of the catch bottles showed that levels of oxygen in the compartment about two minutes into the flight were higher than NASA allows.
An oxygen leak could cause a fire or an explosion. Officials have stated that the issue must be resolved before the next shuttle mission, which NASA has planned to launch in May. NASA rules say that a launch attempt must be cancelled if gaseous oxygen concentrations in the compartment reach 500 parts per million.
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