Discovery network link ends in one-way traffic

Space Shuttle experiments hit a major snag.

A break in the main antenna aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery meant that a new test network failed, claiming a $33m (#21m) experiment as its victim.

Because of the break, which happened shortly after launch, astronauts have been robbed of their two-way transmission channel. They can still receive data from Earth, but they cannot send high-speed data and video back to scientists on the ground.

Discovery was testing a new service to provide researchers on the ground realtime access to data and images from experiments that ride in the shuttle's cargo bay via FTP.

A test network connected Lans within Discovery to a GT 62 OpenRoute Networks router, picked because of its compact size.

The router, in turn, is connected to an antenna, which would have relayed the data to a ground station on each orbit. Data would have then passed from a ground antenna to a terrestrial high-speed transmission service, and back through another GT 62 router.

Although the communications failure won't affect what is stored onboard, an anti-matter search experiment is compromised because scientists need a five- to six-hour continuous stream of high-speed data to calibrate the magnet used.

Instead, they have been receiving a few minutes of data every hour using a patchwork system made from another shuttle antenna and ground relay stations. This is enough to show that the magnet is working, but little else.

It means the question of how much anti-matter exists remains a mystery.

Scientists are likely to ask NASA to reschedule the mission.

"We were waiting for the payoff, and we're probably, I guess you would say, very disappointed," NASA mission manager Jim Bates said.