NASA aiming for a Tuesday launch as search for glitch goes on

0 Comments | USA TODAY, July, 2005 | by Traci Watson

NASA plans to launch space shuttle Discovery on Tuesday, though engineers haven't nailed down the cause of the problem that forced the space agency to abandon last week's attempt.

Discovery was less than three hours from liftoff July 13 when officials halted the countdown because of a balky fuel gauge.

After a week of troubleshooting, engineers have zeroed in on the system for grounding electrical circuits linked to the fuel gauges, said John Muratore, shuttle systems engineering manager. Engineers found grounding near the shuttle's tail that's not up to par.

Problems with the grounding could have created the failure seen just before launch. It's also possible that signals from another electrically powered component of the shuttle could be causing the...