Hurricane Adds To Shuttle Delays

09-17-99 0936 EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Hurricane Floyd has forced NASA to further delay its next two space shuttle flights, which had already been postponed by wiring inspections. The next mission will be no earlier than Nov. 19, following the annual Leonid meteor shower, NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said today. NASA does not want shuttles in orbit during the meteor storm because of the potential damage.

Shuttle managers had hoped to launch Discovery as early as Oct. 28 on a Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. Endeavour was to follow in November on an Earth-mapping mission. Now they're not sure which mission will go first; one of the flights could slip into 2000.

NASA has been inspecting and repairing defective electrical wires in its space shuttle fleet for the past two months. A damaged wire caused a short circuit five seconds into Columbia's launch in July, knocking out computers in two main engines.

Columbia would have had to make an unprecedented emergency landing if an engine had failed.

NASA was forced to interrupt its wiring repair work to prepare for Hurricane Floyd, which roared up Florida's east coast on Wednesday.

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