CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA aims to
give the space shuttle Endeavour a fifth shot at launching into orbit today
after being waylaid by a series of unfortunate events for more than a month.
Endeavour is slated to launch Monday
evening at 6:51 p.m. EDT (2251 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center here with only a
40 percent chance of good weather expected. Approaching lightning and
thunderstorms in the area are a risk to thwart the launch.
Endeavour almost
got off the ground on Sunday, but was foiled at the last minute by storms
too close to the shuttle's emergency landing site here. Though the weather
wasn't a constraint for liftoff, Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility must be
clear within a 20 nautical mile radius in case an emergency forces the shuttle
to make an abort landing.
"Scrubs aren't fun, and I've been in
this situation before," said Endeavour commander Mark Polansky late Sunday via
the microblogging Web site Twitter, where he is chronicling the mission as
@Astro_127. "You just have to roll with it."
The weather outlook for the coming
days only appears to worsen as time goes on, with a sea breeze potentially
pushing thunderstorms near the launch site.
Endeavour has until July 14 to
launch before it must stand down to allow an unmanned Russian cargo ship to
dock at the space station. If the mission does not get off the ground by then,
NASA may negotiate with Russia for more time, or wait until the shuttle's
launch window opens up again on July 27.
Repeated delays
An earlier launch attempt this week
was also spoiled by Florida's
erratic weather. A violent lightning storm struck near the launch pad on
Friday, and NASA was forced to delay Endeavour's flight a day so engineers
could ensure the shuttle had suffered no damage.
Endeavour's STS-127 mission was
delayed twice by a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak from the shuttle's
external fuel tank, though that issue has since been successfully repaired.
Endeavour and its
seven-astronaut crew are slated for a 16-day assembly mission to the
International Space Station. Polansky and his crew will deliver an outdoor
experiment porch for the Japanese
Kibo laboratory, a cache of spare supplies and a new long-duration station crewmember - NASA astronaut Tim Kopra - to the orbital
outpost. Kopra is set to start a stint as a flight engineer on the outpost's
six-man Expedition 20 crew.
Rounding out the crew are Canadian
astronaut Julie Payette and NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, Chris Cassidy, Tom
Marshburn and Dave Wolf. The astronauts plan an
ambitious visit to the station with five spacewalks and elaborate robotic
work.
Endeavour's flight will be NASA's
third shuttle mission of the year.
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 launch coverage
begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT).
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