On Launch Pad 39A, a technician checks test wiring spliced into an electrical harness in space shuttle Atlantis' aft main engine compartment connected with the engine cut-off, or ECO, system. The test wiring leads to the interior of the mobile launcher platform where the Time Domain Reflectometry, or TDR, test equipment will be located to test the sensor system. The shuttle's planned launches on Dec. 6 and Dec. 9 were postponed because of false readings from the part of the ECO system that monitors the liquid hydrogen section of the tank. The liftoff date from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is now targeted for Jan. 10, depending on the resolution of the problem in the fuel sensor system. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Details