Weather Looking Good for Wednesday Shuttle Launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? Thanks to a bout of dry air, NASA's weather forecast for a Wednesday launch of the space shuttle Endeavour and its STS-118 crew looks promising.

"The weather pattern is pretty friendly for this time of year, given that it's summer time," said Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Winters said there's only a 10 percent chance of delaying fueling of the spacecraft due to the threat of isolated showers, and a 30 percent chance of launch delay from potential thunderstorms.

Should mission managers delay the launch, Winters said the 30 percent chance of delay will remain the same throughout the week and actually drop to 20 percent on Friday.

"It looks like we're going to get a break from [thunderstorms] for launch day," Winters said. NASA hopes to rocket the STS-118 crew towards the International Space Station (ISS) on 6:36 p.m. EDT (2236 GMT) from Pad 39A.

Final preparations

As the countdown clock ticks down, Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, a Johnson Space Center spokesperson here at KSC, said the astronauts are continuing with their final preparations for launch day.

The crew is squeezing in some final training flights, receiving medical checks and going over the mission objectives and Endeavour's controls, she said.

Cloutier-Lemasters said crew commander Scott Kelly and pilot Charlie Hobaugh flew a shuttle training aircraft today. The two veteran astronauts also plan to jet around in T-38 supersonic jet trainers to prepare ready for the speedy ascent into space.

"We're making sure everything is going well their last few days here," Cloutier-Lemasters said.

Building the future

Led by Scott Kelly, the seven-person crew will dock with the ISS two days after launch and continue their 11-day mission, which is likely to be extended to 14 days thanks to a small power-transferring system.

Officials said the mission will be a mixed bag of tasks, but its ultimate goal is to continue with assembly of the space laboratory as well prepare it for future construction.

"There's a little bit of assembly, there's some re-supply, there's some repairs and there are some high-visibility education and public affairs events," said Matt Abbott, NASA's lead STS-118 shuttle flight director, of the mission last month. "It's a little bit of everything."

Barbara Morgan, NASA's teacher-turned-astronaut, will be part of Endeavour's crew delivering a 4,010-pound (1,820-kilogram) spacer for the Starboard-5 (S5) truss segment of the ISS. The piece will add another element to the space station's growing backbone and make way for its future expansion, but the shuttle's biggest haul will be a 7,000-pound (3175-kilogram) external stowage platform for the ISS.

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