NASA readies shuttle for launch

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) — NASA was on course to finish repairs to launch the shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday after its scheduled mission to the space station last week was postponed because of a gas leak.

"We're inside 24 hours of launch attempt number 2," the crew's commander, Mark Polansky, wrote on Tuesday on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

The next attempted blast-off for shuttle to the International Space Station was set for 5:40 am EDT (0940 GMT) on Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency said in an earlier statement.

The hydrogen gas leak in one of Endeavour's venting systems was detected just hours before the shuttle's planned launch at the weekend -- the system in question was supposed to carry excess hydrogen safely away...