The weather
looks promising for NASA's planned predawn Tuesday launch of the space shuttle
Discovery and seven astronauts bound for the International Space Station.
NASA test
director Steve Payne said Discovery currently has a 70 percent chance of good weather for launching
spaceward Tuesday at 1:36 a.m. EDT (0536 GMT) and lighting up the dark morning sky over the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.
"It should
be a spectacular
launch," Payne said today in a mission briefing at the spaceport in Cape
Canaveral, Fla. "I'm hoping we put on a good show for you."
Of the
seven remaining shuttle missions before NASA retires is shuttle fleet in 2010
or 2011, Discovery's is currently the last planned night launch, though
schedules can change, Payne added.
The only
issue for the upcoming launch is ongoing analysis of a shuttle power controller
that had to be replaced on Discovery, but Payne said engineers are confident
they will complete the work in time for liftoff.
NASA will
begin counting down toward the Tuesday launch tonight at 11 p.m. EDT
(0300 Aug. 22 GMT).
Resupplying
space station
Discovery
is poised to fly a
13-day mission to the International Space Station to deliver about 15,200
pounds (6,894 kg) of new science gear, supplies and spare parts for the
orbiting laboratory. Three spacewalks are planned for maintenance work,
including replacing a massive ammonia cooling system tank that weighs as much
as a small car.
The
astronauts are also delivering a new treadmill named after comedian
Stephen Colbert, who tried to have a new station module named after him
earlier this year, but ended up with the exercise gear instead.
Veteran
NASA astronaut Rick Sturckow will command Discovery's flight. He leads a
six-man, one-woman crew that includes first-time flyer Nicole Stott. Stott is
flying to the space station to replace fellow NASA astronaut Tim Kopra as a
member of the station's six-person
crew.
Kopra
arrived last month on the shuttle Endeavour and will return home with Discovery's
crew. Stott is slated to return to Earth in November on the next shuttle
flight.
NASA has
until Aug. 30 to launch Discovery's STS-128 mission before standing down until
Oct. 17 to avoid space traffic conflicts at the station with Russian spacecraft
and Japan's first unmanned cargo ship. That Japanese spacecraft, the H-2 Transfer
Vehicle, is due to launch Sept. 10.
A Russian
cargo ship is scheduled to leave the station mid-September and a Soyuz
spacecraft is set to launch toward the station on Sept. 30.
Payne said
Discovery has four chances to lift off during its five-day launch widow, with
fair weather expected.
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