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Weather Scrubs Shuttle Launch, NASA Will Try Again Friday
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer,
posted: 08:00 pm ET
30 May 2002
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Summer afternoon thunderstorms near the Kennedy Space Center prevented Endeavour from beginning its mission to the International Space Station on Thursday. NASA is planning to make another launch attempt at 7:22 p.m. EDT (2322 GMT) Friday. The weather forecast for Friday is more dismal than the one advertised for Thursday's attempt. Air Force forecasters are predicting a 70 percent chance the shuttle will not be able to get off the ground, with the presence of afternoon thunderstorms as the main concern. The choice of scrubbing Thursday was applauded by the agency's top boss. "We're disappointed, of course, that the launch was not successful today," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "But I think it's a continuing testimonial to the remarkable ethos and culture of safety that dominates here at the Kennedy Space Center." O'Keefe highlighted the one positive side of the scrub, which is that with Endeavour's delay the two Americans that are part of the Expedition Four crew now onboard the frontier outpost -- namely Dan Bursch and Carl Walz -- will break the U.S. spaceflight record of 188 days for the longest duration mission. Shannon Lucid holds the record right now, thanks to her 1996 stay aboard the Russian space station Mir."I'm sure that Dr. Shannon Lucid will congratulate them on that particular feat when they finally do return home," O'Keefe said. Endeavour's 12-day mission is intended to replace the current expedition crew with a fresh team, deliver more than three tons of supplies and equipment, continue assembling the station and repairing a faulty joint in the station's Canadian robot arm.
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