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Engine Replacement Will Delay US Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch WASHINGTON (AFP) - An engine replacement on the space shuttle Atlantis will delay its scheduled April 13 lift-off from Cape Canaveral, NASA said. "The review indicates that defective seals may be present on the fuel pump for engine number one," Kennedy Space Center spokesman Joe Wells said. "Managers will finalize a work plan to replace main engine number one. The work is expected to take about three days. Shuttle program managers expect to announce a new target launch date later this week," he added. Defective seals were already found on the sistership Discovery after it returned from its December mission. The decision to replace the Atlantis’ engine follows a "thorough documentation and inventory review concerning defective main engine fuel pump tip seals" carried out last month by NASA, according to Wells. The circular-section seals, made of nickel – a total 18 of them are built into the engines – are found inside three turbo-pumps that inject liquid hydrogen into the engines at high pressure. Their function is to reduce the pressurized flow around the turbine's blades as they rotate 37,000 times a minute. 
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