Exeter Astronaut’s Supporters to Try Again

Family and friends of NASA astronaut Rex Walheim returned to Exeter disappointed the space shuttle Atlantis didn’t lift off last week, but they’re hoping to be back in Florida for another launch attempt in early January.

Walheim’s brother Lance Walheim and their father, Lon Walheim, both of Exeter, and about 200 relatives and friends traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in expectation of a Dec. 6 liftoff. But problems with fuel sensors inside the space shuttle’s external fuel tank forced mission planners to scrub the original launch date as well as a second attempt on Sunday.

NASA officials said Thursday they will try for a Jan. 10 launch — if the sensor issues can be resolved.

"We were disappointed, of course, but we’re all thinking, ‘safety first,’ " said Lance Walheim, an Exeter citrus grower and author and the astronaut’s oldest brother. "A lot of people left after Thursday was canceled, but we stayed to see if they could go up Sunday."

Once Sunday’s launch try was canceled, Lance Walheim said, his family returned to Exeter to tend to his freeze-threatened citrus crop.

This will be the second trip into space for Rex Walheim, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He’ll be the flight engineer and, as a mission specialist, is scheduled to make three spacewalks to install the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station. Walheim also made a pair of spacewalks in his first flight, also aboard the shuttle Atlantis, in 2002.

Lance Walheim said the delay brought out the engineer in his brother, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

"After the first launch was scrubbed, Rex got involved with the company that makes the sensors up in Vermont trying to help them figure out the problem, and impress upon them how important it was to fix it," Lance Walheim said. "Later on, he told me, ‘A whole lot of good that did!’ "

The reporter can be reached at tsheehan@fresnobee.com or (559) 622-2410.