Space Shuttle Discovery’s crew of seven are onboard and in their seats as final checks continue for what has been a smooth countdown towards the planned 1948GMT launch of International Space Station (ISS) logistics mission STS-121.
Launching from pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) STS-121 is the eighteenth US mission to the ISS and the 32nd flight for Discovery.
The mission commander is Steven Lindsey and his crew of five NASA astronauts comprises, pilot Mark Kelly, mission specialists Michael Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and British born Piers Sellers; and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter joins them to be transported to the space station to become the third member of the current ISS Expedition 13.
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Kelly was performing air-to-ground communications checks with Launch and Mission Control in Houston, while the rest of the crew members got into the Orbiter.
Meanwhile NASA's two solid rocket booster (SRB) recovery ships, the Freedom Star and Liberty Star, remain in position, 140 miles from KSC in the Atlantic Ocean.
Arriving there on Thursday 29 June the ships will retrieve the SRBs and return them to Cape Canaveral, where they will later be sent by train to Utah to be refurbished for a future shuttle launch.
STS-121, the second return to flight mission, will see supplies delivered, and during two or three extra vehicular activities the replacement of a pump and a communication umbilical reel assembly for the ISS’s mobile transporter, and Shuttle thermal protection system tile repair techniques tested.
The Discovery crew members had a wake-up call at 0900 and ate their traditional launch-day breakfast at the Operations and Checkout Building.
Lindsey and two crew members attended a flight controllers briefing about the weather conditions at KSC and alternate landing site availability.
At around 1400 the crew went to the suiting room to put on the orange flight suits that contain an oxygen supply, communications equipment and a temperature control system. The suits also offer protection in the event of an emergency.
After suiting up, the astronauts went to the vehicle waiting to take them to pad 39B.
Two issues that have potentially delayed the launch are the presence of storm clouds close to KSC and the failure of a thruster heater in the left orbital maneuvering system pod. However there is no word as of now that either will stop the launch today.
By Rob Coppinger in Orlando
Source: Flight International
