Shuttle Endeavor on pad 39A. Image courtesy of NASA

My editors here at ZDNet recently added coverage of NASA to my ZDNet Government beat. As a long-time space geek (I grew up with an Earth-to-the-moon trajectory poster over my bed as a kid), and as a resident of Brevard County (where the Kennedy Space Center is located), covering NASA is a topic I'm sure to enjoy.

Except this week.

It seems this is the week for tragedy, whether far away in Japan or right here, on the Space Coast.

At 7:40am yesterday morning, on launch pad 39A, one of the workers preparing the shuttle Endeavor for launch fell to his death. Work at the pad, and at all the other shuttle processing facilities, has been suspended for the moment.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, James Vanover was a swing-bridge engineer. He'd worked at Kennedy Space Center for 28 years, initially with Lockheed Martin and then with United Space Alliance, the general contractor for the shuttle.

According to NASA spokeswoman Candrea Thomas, details as to what happened and what caused Vanover's death "remain unclear."

Deaths at the pad are relatively rare, thankfully, despite the dangers inherent in working on such complex equipment, and, often, at such heights. The most recent death was in 2006, a worker named Steven Owens tripped over a wire on a roof and fell. He died after being transported to a local hospital.

In Vanover's case, NASA's own emergency medical team responded to the pad, but they were unable to save Vanover's life.

According to NASA's Thomas, while tragic, Vanover's death is unlikely to delay the scheduled April 19 launch of Endeavor. The shuttle schedule has six additional pad schedule days, so even though work has been stopped, there's enough slack in the schedule (for now at least), to keep the launch on track.

Our condolences go out to Mr. Vanover and his family.