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Leaky Titan 4 May Delay Cassini Launch
Leaks discovered in an upper stage of the Titan 4B rocket could delay the launch of the Cassini mission to Saturn, which will use that rocket for a launch scheduled October 6.
![[image of Titan 4B launch]](../970815/images2/t4b.jpg)
The leaks in the Centaur upper stage were discovered during a fueling test August 5. Both liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen leaked from the thrust section of the Centaur during the test.
NASA reported that "engineering assessments" were underway to find the cause of the leak and determining what measures, if any, were necessary to correct the problem.
"There is the possibility of a launch delay," said Kennedy Space Center spokesman Bruce Buckingham. Other NASA and JPL officials were hopeful any delay would be minimal.
The launch of the multi-billion-dollar Cassini mission is scheduled for October 6, at the beginning of the most favorable launch window. That window, which runs though November 4, would allow Cassini to use Venus, Earth, and Jupiter gravity assists to reach Saturn by July 2004.
A launch later in November would still bring Cassini to Saturn, but would delay arrival by 6 to 18 months and require more maneuvering fuel. A secondary launch window is available early in 1998, but without a Jupiter flyby. In that case Cassini would arrive no sooner than 2006.
The Cassini mission is designed to be similar to the Galileo mission, with the large main spacecraft going into orbit around the planet to study Saturn and its moons. The spacecraft includes a European probe, Huygens, which will fall through the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and may land safely on its surface.
Anti-nuclear activists have protested the launch of Cassini, fearing an accident during launch or during a later Earth flyby would cause the spacecraft's power-producing radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) to rupture, spilling up to 72 kg (158 lbs.) of plutonium into the Earth's atmosphere.