Space Shuttle Poised for Sixth Launch Attempt Today
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Space shuttle Endeavour stands on Launch Pad 39A beneath a darkened sky after weather prevented an attempted liftoff on July 13, 2009 - the shuttle's 5th launch try. CREDIT: NASA/Scott Andrews |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA is
hoping the sixth time is the charm for the space shuttle Endeavour, which is
poised to make yet another launch attempt late Wednesday after repeated delays.
So far, stormy weather and a gas
leak have
conspired to prevent Endeavour from lifting off here at Kennedy Space
Center. But the shuttle is once more primed and
ready on Launch Pad 39A as astronauts and mission managers hope for a 6:03 p.m.
EDT (2203 GMT) blast off.
Today's weather forecast is slightly
better than in recent days, with a 60 percent chance of good conditions
expected. Lightning and thunderstorms have foiled three earlier scheduled
launches for Endeavour's 16-day STS-127
mission. A gas leak prevented two attempts in mid-June and has since been
repaired.
The shuttle and its seven-member
crew are slated for a marathon trip to the International Space Station
(ISS) to attach a new outdoor experiment porch to the Japanese Kibo laboratory
and drop off vital spare supplies. This final segment will complete the mammoth
$1 billion Kibo, which means "Hope"
in Japanese.
Endeavour commander Mark Polansky is leading a crew of seven spaceflyers that
includes Canadian
Julie Payette and NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, David Wolf, Chris
Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn and Tim Kopra on the mission. Kopra is making a
one-way trip to the station to replace Koichi Wakata of the Japanese Aerospace
Exploration Agency as an Expedition 20 flight engineer.
The shuttle's visit is eagerly
anticipated by the six people waiting on the space station: The station?s crew
consists of Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Roman Romanenko,
and astronauts Michael Barratt of NASA, Frank De Winne
of Belgium, Robert Thirsk of Canada, and Wakata. When Endeavour arrives at the
ISS, the population there will jump to 13 - a record high.
"We have a crew exchange which
is always very exciting, of course, for the crew because we?ve got some new
dynamics, you have some new people you can talk to on the crew," De Winne said in a preflight interview. "And also living
and working then with 13 people on board of the space station will be
interesting because it will be the first time that there will be 13 people
onboard."
Endeavour's last attempt to blast
off on Monday was abandoned minutes before launch because lightning and
thunderstorms moved in near the launch pad and the Shuttle Landing Facility
here, required to be clear in case it's needed for an emergency landing shortly
after launch. Mission managers decided not to try a launch on Tuesday to avoid
predicted bad weather and to allow ground crews to replace a small thruster
cover on the shuttle's nose that came
unglued.
Launching this evening will allow
Endeavour to keep its mission largely intact, though some events will be rescheduled
to allow for an earlier undocking time from the space station to make way for
an incoming Russian cargo ship.
If today doesn't work out, NASA can
try again Thursday, though that would require giving up some activities during
the mission, including at least one spacewalk.
- New
Video - The Kibo Lab: Japan's Hope in Space - Part 1, Part
2
- Final
Countdown: A Guide to NASA's Last Space Shuttle Missions
- SPACE.com
Special Report - THE MOON: Then, Now, Next
SPACE.com is providing continuous
coverage of STS-127 with reporter Clara Moskowitz at Cape Canaveral and senior
editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for mission
updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed. Live coverage begins at
12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT).











