NASA delays launch after lightning strikes

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA cancelled Saturday's launch attempt of space shuttle Endeavour on a construction mission to the International Space Station to assess possible damage from nearby lightning strikes, officials said.

Launch was reset for 7:13 p.m. EDT (12:13 a.m. on Monday British time) on Sunday. The shuttle is carrying a porch for Japan's Kibo laboratory that will be used to expose experiments to the open environment of space.

NASA reported 11 lightning strikes less than a half-mile (three-quarters of a km) from the launch pad.

"We need to be 100 percent confident that we have a good system across the board," said Mike Moses, the shuttle program manager at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The shuttle is protected from direct strikes by lightning masts and wires that divert currents to the ground. The concern is that related electromagnetic fields could trigger currents in the shuttle's electrical systems.

"We see nothing so far that indicates anything was actually affected by the lighting strikes, so I fully expect this to be a positive story, but we have a lot of equipment that has to be checked and that's what takes time," Moses said.

The delay is the third for Endeavour, which is scheduled to spend 16 days in orbit.

NASA tried twice last month to launch Endeavour, but was stymied by potentially dangerous hydrogen fuel leaks.