Computer glitch may delay shuttle launch

[BGonaSTICK]

A computer problem could force NASA to postpone next month's launch of shuttle Discovery until 2007 to avoid having the spaceship in orbit when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.

The shuttle is due to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in central Florida on 7 December on a 12-day mission to continue construction of the half-built International Space Station.

But if the launch is delayed for any reason beyond 17 or 18 December, the flight is likely to be postponed until next year, officials at the US space agency said on Monday.

To build in added cushion, NASA may move up the take off to 6 December.

"The shuttle computers were never envisioned to fly through a year-end changeover," space shuttle programme manager Wayne Hale told a briefing.

After the 2003 accident involving space shuttle Columbia, NASA started developing procedures to work around the computer glitch. But NASA managers still do not want to launch Discovery knowing it would be in space when the calendar rolls over to 1 January, 2007.

The problem, according to Hale, is that the shuttle's computers do not reset to day one, as ground-based systems that support shuttle navigation do. Instead, after 31 December, the 365th day of the year, shuttle computers calculate that 1 January is just day 366. NASA is under pressure to complete at least 14 more shuttle flights to finish the $100bn International Space Station before the ageing shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.