THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190478
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
Heavy traffic in space has delayed, yet again, Friday evening's liftoff of a Conestoga rocket from NASA's Wallops Island rocket range on the Eastern Shore. The launch has been rescheduled for Monday at 6 p.m.
The latest postponement was attributed to the pending launch of the space shuttle Columbia, delayed six times but now set to blast off Friday, and the liftoff of an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral today or Sunday. NASA's worldwide tracking system usually handles one launch at a time.
``We're ready to roll, but there's no room available,'' said Jim Hengle, a vice president with the Conestoga's parent company, EER Systems Inc. ``We took the next available slot we could count on. This is just a fact of life. We wanted the Friday slot, but other people want to get into space, too.''
The Conestoga's last liftoff attempt - the fifth - was abruptly scrubbed shortly before 8 p.m. on Aug. 13, a minute and a half before the craft's motors would have ignited, sending it and 14 experiments into space.
Sensors detected a loss of hydraulic pressure to two steering nozzles, a malfunction that would have prevented the vehicle from maneuvering safely into orbit. by CNB