CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla - The weather outlook has improved slightly for this week's
planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis and a European lab to the International
Space Station (ISS), NASA officials said Tuesday.
Atlantis
and its seven-astronaut crew now have a 90 percent chance of favorable weather
conditions for their Thursday
afternoon launch toward the ISS, with top shuttle officials discussing
plans for the upcoming space shot here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
"We are
optimistic about the weather on Thursday," said shuttle weather officer Kathy
Winters, of the U.S. Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron, in a morning
status briefing.
Winters
said the possibility of a low cloud layer thwarting Thursday's planned 4:31
p.m. EST (2131 GMT) liftoff from Launch Pad 39A dropped slightly, which allowed
Atlantis' flight chances to improve by 10 percent.
Commanded
by veteran
shuttle flyer Stephen Frick, Atlantis' STS-122 astronauts will deliver the
European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory to the ISS, swap out one member of
the station's Expedition 16 crew and stage three spacewalks to upgrade the
outpost with new hardware and experiments during their planned
11-day mission.
Later
today, shuttle engineers will load Atlantis with the super-chilled liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen used to power the orbiter's three fuel cells during
its space station construction flight.
Top shuttle
officials are also holding their traditional Launch Readiness Review today to
determine whether the orbiter is indeed ready for liftoff. They will announce their
decision during a press briefing to begin no earlier than 4:00 p.m. EST (2100
GMT).
"At this
point, I'm happy to report that we have no issues whatsoever," NASA test
director Steve Payne told reporters today. "The countdown is going nicely and
the flight crew is ready to go and eager for Thursday's launch."
Engineers
completed last-minute repairs to three
minor dings near the top of Atlantis' foam-covered fuel tank Monday
afternoon, he added.
"They
turned out well," Payne said, adding that the repairs have already been
approved for flight. "They were so slight that it took a really close
inspection to detect them in the first place."
NASA has a
slim launch window that closes Dec. 13 in which to launch Atlantis while the
angles between the space station's solar arrays and the sun are favorable to
support docked operations. The agency is prepared to make four launch attempts
in five days before standing down to top off Atlantis' liquid hydrogen and
oxygen supply, Payne said.
If the
shuttle launches early in its window and its power supplies hold out, NASA
could extend the STS-122 mission two extra days and add a fourth spacewalk to
inspect a balky
ISS solar array joint.
"Obviously,
we want to have a good load and launch as early as possible," Payne said. "Thursday
is our goal."
NASA
will broadcast Atlantis' STS-122 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission coverage and NASA
TV feed.
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