Pipe Glitch Delays Space Shuttle Liftoff
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The launch of the space shuttle Columbia at Kennedy Space Center was postponed for 24 hours because a coolant pipe was not properly insulated, NASA said. Columbia’s blastoff had been scheduled for Thursday but engineers feared the pipe, at the front of the shuttle’s cargo bay, might freeze and burst in the cold vacuum of space, said Bruce Buckingham, a spokesman for the space agency. The shuttle is scheduled to spend 16 days aloft with a crew of seven aboard.
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