Thu, November 13, 2008
WASHINGTON – All conditions including the weather are favorable for Friday's launch of the space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts on a "home improvement" mission to the International Space Station, NASA said Wednesday.
"Endeavour is ready, the crew is ready and the MMT (mission management team) gives a go for proceeding, today," pre-launch preparation manager LeRoy Cain told a press conference.
The countdown for the 15-day mission began Tuesday at 9:30 pm (0230 GMT, Wednesday), and "we are not tracking any issues at this stage," said launch director Mike Leinback.
The 27th shuttle flight to the orbiting space station and the fourth and final shuttle mission for 2008 is scheduled for liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on November 14 at 7:55 pm (0055 GMT).
"Everything is looking good for pre-launch for weather," and conditions at launch are forecast at 60 percent favorable, Cape Canaveral meteorologist Kathy Winters told reporters.
However, if the launch should be delayed for 24 hours, for any reason, conditions would drop to 40 percent favorable, she added, explaining that low clouds and rain were some 37 kilometers (20 nautical miles) off the cape and drawing nearer.
The Endeavour's mission on Friday, nearly 10 years to the day since a shuttle crew first began constructing the ISS, on November 20, 1998, will repair the station's power-generating solar arrays and expand its living quarters for bigger crews.
"This mission is all about home improvement," shuttle commander Chris Ferguson, 47, said Tuesday. "Home improvement inside and outside the station."
The shuttle's massive external tank will begin taking in some two million liters (530,000 gallons) of mostly super-cooled, liquid hydrogen Friday at 10:30 am (1530 GMT), Leinback said.
The three-hour tanking operation will be the final pre-launch procedure.
"Right now everything is going on track for (shuttle mission) STS-126 for Endeavour and looking good for an Friday night lift-off," he said.
If the mission should fail to launch by November 25, it would have to be postponed until January, Cain said.
(Agencies)
