From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!alice!sjb Newsgroups: net.columbia Title: Test Firing Completed -- Bad Prognosis Article-I.D.: alice.1419 Posted: Tue Jan 25 19:59:58 1983 Received: Fri Jan 28 04:46:40 1983 NASA held the 20 second test firing of Challenger's main engines on schedule today and had some bleak news to report afterwards. >From early examination of the data obtained, NASA engineers said that they have found that the hydrogen leak, still on the same order of magnitude as it was in December, is coming from the high pressure sections of at least one engine. Major General James Abrahamson said that if they have to pull one or more engines, it will delay the launch by at least 3 or 4 weeks, thus setting future launch dates back as well. NASA also said that a late February launch date now looks inaccessible.