NASA is set to delay Discovery's launch because of storm clouds that represent a threat due to the potential for lightening strikes to the Orbiter during ascent, writes Rob Coppinger in Orlando.
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Space Shuttle Discovery’s countdown has been on a hold and was expected to last until at least 1935GMT as final Orbiter systems and weather checks are made.
The launch window begins at 1944 and 40s and to lift off at 1948, the optimum time to reach the International Space Station with the propellant Discovery has onboard, the 9min countdown would restart at 1939. Discovery’s hatch has been closed and the failed thruster heater issue has been closed by the mission management team (MMT).
While the launch team and mission management team discuss the situation the weather is being monitored by two aircraft.
The NASA Shuttle Training Aircraft is flying on approaches to the KSC runway checking weather conditions in the immediate vicinity while a Northrop Grumman T-38 flies a much wider route for the local area.
Launching from complex 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.
This second return to flight mission will see supplies delivered, replacement of a pump and a communication umbilical reel assembly for the ISS’s mobile transporter fitted, and Shuttle thermal protection system tile repair techniques tested.
Source: Flight Daily News
