PRESSURE loss in a hydraulic system on the US space shuttle Atlantis after its launch yesterday could force NASA to shorten the shuttle's 10 day mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
"During the ascent, everything went pretty normal," said Ms Loren Shriver, launch integration manager at Kennedy Space Centre. Then the crew told ground controllers there "was a slight leak" in a hydraulic system. "We could not seem to get it isolated," Ms Shriver said.
NASA officials met yesterday afternoon to decide whether to bring Atlantis home early and were expected to make a decision in the evening.
About an hour after the shuttle was launched at 3.13 a.m. EST (8.13 a.m. Irish time), mission managers said leaks in the hydraulic system could force them to shorten the shuttle's 10 day mission to dock with the Russian space station.
Officials said the problem would not interfere with the shuttle's rendezvous and docking with Mir, set for 9.34 p.m. EST (2.34 Irish time) today.
If the mission is cut short, it would be the second embarrassment in as many months for NASA. During last month's mission, an Italian satellite towed on a thin tether broke free when the tether snapped.