This
story was updated at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA is watching the weather for Tuesday's planned launch of
the space shuttle Discovery.
Rain
showers and thick clouds are the chief hurdles facing Discovery's
upcoming space shot, with current forecasts predicting a 60 percent chance
of favorable launch conditions. The clock began counting down to the shuttle's planned
launch at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) today.
"We have
several concerns for launch day," said NASA shuttle weather officer Kathy
Winters in a mission update here at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
Winters
said a frontal boundary of weather will bring rain showers over Discovery's
launch site today and throughout early next week, but should steer clear by
Tuesday. Only remaining rain showers and thick clouds may post a threat to
Discovery's launch, she added.
Commanded
by veteran
shuttle astronaut Pamela Melroy, Discovery's seven-astronaut crew is set to
launch on Oct. 23 at 11:38 a.m. EDT (1538 GMT) to begin a 14-day construction
flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Discovery will deliver the
vital connecting node Harmony and ferry a new crewmember to the station as part
of NASA's
STS-120 mission.
"We are
tracking no issues in our preparations at this point," NASA test director
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told reporters.
Shuttle
workers are expected to begin loading the super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid
oxygen used to power Discovery's three fuel cells at 10:00 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT)
on Sunday, but could delay the operation should poor weather intervene, said
Blackwell-Thompson, adding that there is plenty of time to make up any delayed
work in time for Tuesday's launch.
NASA has
until Dec. 11 to launch Discovery's STS-120 mission, but plans to make up to
four attempts within five days, beginning with the Oct. 23 opportunity. Should
weather prevent Tuesday's planned launch, the weather outlook remains the same
- 60 percent chance of favorable launch conditions - for Wednesday and
Thursday, Winters said.
Meanwhile,
the 31,400-pound Harmony connecting node and a trio of spare space station
parts are stowed inside Discovery payload bay and ready for their trip to the
ISS. With its multiple attachment points, Harmony will serve as a hub
for future international laboratories to be launched to the space station.
The first new laboratory - the European Space Agency's Columbus module - is
slated to launch aboard the shuttle Atlantis on Dec. 6.
"We are
ready to go," said NASA's STS-120 payload manager Glen Chin.
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