Washington, June 17: The launch of the space shuttle Endeavour for a 16-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was postponed Wednesday due to a hydrogen gas leak.
The shuttle had been scheduled to take off at 5:40 am (0940 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida after a four-day delay caused by an earlier hydrogen leak. It was to carry the final pieces to the Japanese Kibo module of the ISS.
The latest leak developed during fuelling, NASA said.
The seven-member crew were to to install a porch for experiments outside the space station, bring spare equipment and conduct other repairs during five planned spacewalks.
NASA postponed the Endeavour lift-off Saturday after it discovered that hydrogen was leaking from a vent line and had to empty the fuel tank containing liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The problem was similar to one in March that delayed the launch of the Discovery shuttle.
–Agencies