Three Days Away

[Guest Glenn]

Source: NASA

 

During a countdown status briefing Sunday morning at Kennedy Space Center, NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding and STS-114 Payload Manager Scott Higginbotham announced they are go for launch. Launch Weather Officer Kathy Winters expects a 30% chance that weather may prevent launch on Wednesday. In the event of a delay, the forecast is slightly less promising, with the chance of weather violating launch constraints rising to 40% on Thursday and Friday.

 

The crew of STS-114 arrived at Kennedy aboard a NASA Gulfstream II jet at 6:30 p.m. EDT Saturday. The astronauts flew in from Houston a day early to avoid treacherous travel conditions caused by Hurricane Dennis.

 

Note: Launch countdown officially began at 6 p.m. EDT, July 10.

 

Liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery on NASA's Return to Flight Mission is scheduled for 3:51 p.m. EDT July 13.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

More from The Australian

 

Countdown for shuttle crew

 

Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral

 

July 10, 2005

 

SHUTTLE Discovery's seven astronauts flew into the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida today as NASA prepared to start the countdown for its first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

 

The US space agency has scheduled Discovery's liftoff for 3.51pm Wednesday local time (5.51am Thursday AEST).

 

Australian-born mission specialist Andy Thomas, 53, said: "It's been two-and-a-half years since a crew has stood here before you. That's way too long and it is definitely time that we went back to flight and back to space."

 

Mr Thomas and his crewmates - commander Eileen Collins, pilot James Kelly, flight engineer Stephen Robinson, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and mission specialists Wendy Lawrence and Charles Camarda - arrived at the Florida spaceport a day earlier than planned to avoid poor weather from Hurricane Dennis in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The last group of astronauts that lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre never returned. Shuttle Columbia was destroyed and its seven astronauts killed during a failed landing attempt.

 

The shuttle had been damaged by debris at liftoff and disintegrated over Texas as superheated atmospheric gases blasted inside a breach in its wing.

 

"It's humbling to be here and it's a great sense of privilege," Mr Thomas said.

 

"Having the responsibilities of the return-to-flight mission certainly makes me feel that sense of privilege even more."

 

Ms Collins said: "I'm very proud of this crew and I can tell you that they are very, very prepared and very ready to fly this mission."

 

The Discovery crew is scheduled to spend 12 days in space to test safety upgrades implemented in the wake of the Columbia accident and to deliver critical equipment to the International Space Station.

 

The three-day countdown for Discovery's launch is slated to begin at 6pm Sunday US time (8am tomorrow AEST).

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Was hoping to watch the launch live in about 5-10 minutes, however it has been called off due to a fuel valve malfunction. :(

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

Here's some news.

 

NASA postpones shuttle launch

 

AFP

 

July 14, 2005

 

CAPE CANAVERAL: NASA has postponed the planned launch of Discovery because of a problem with the space shuttle's fuel system.

 

"We have had to scrub the launch for today due to a low-level fuel cut-off problem," NASA spokesman George Diller said.

 

The system is designed to prevent the shuttle from using its full power during ascent.

 

Diller said that it would take several hours for experts to assess the problem and that it remained unclear whether NASA would attempt liftoff later this week.

 

The decision was taken about two hours and 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled 3:51pm (19:51 GMT) launch of Discovery, the first planned space shuttle flight since Columbia disintegrated upon reentering Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

And more problems before the fuel system problem-

 

Shuttle Discovery is go despite red faces over mishap

 

Robert Lusetich and Andrew McGarry

 

July 14, 2005

 

NASA declared last night its Discovery space shuttle was ready for one of space exploration's most critical missions despite an embarrassing setback just hours before its 5am (AEST) launch.

 

NASA technicians were forced to replace two heat-resistant tiles on the shuttle skin after they were damaged when a plastic window cover weighing less than 1kg fell off the spacecraft on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

 

"The issue has been resolved. Launch is a go," NASA spokesman Mike Rein said yesterday.

 

The shuttle launch will mark the first manned space flight since the Columbia disintegrated more than two years ago, killing all seven astronauts on board.

 

Australian-born astronaut Andy Thomas is among a crew of seven on board Discovery, embarking on his fourth space flight. He will inspect the shuttle during the flight and choreograph three spacewalks.

 

The damage caused by falling debris has rung alarm bells because it is precisely the problem that doomed Columbia.

 

Columbia's seven crew perished 82 seconds after takeoff when a briefcase-sized piece of insulating foam broke free from an external fuel tank and smashed a hole through heat-shield panels on the wing which insulate the ship against searing temperatures at re-entry. In the two years since then, US President George W. Bush has signalled new goals for America's space program - putting people on the moon by 2020, ahead of a manned mission to Mars.

 

The three remaining space shuttles will remain in harness until 2010, bringing parts and materials to the still-in-construction International Space Station.

 

NASA has spent 2 1/2 years making the shuttle safer, but even the space agency's new chief, Michael Griffin, acknowledged that there was risk to every mission.

 

"We are being as smart about this as we know how to be but we are up against the limits of our human knowledge," the scientist said.

 

"If someone wants more, they're going to have to find smarter humans."

 

Discovery's commander, Eileen Collins, said the crew would be taking personal items of members of the Columbia crew into space as a memorial.

 

"We will be remembering the Columbia crew during our mission, as we have every day since February 2003," she said.

 

"As the Columbia crew believed in space exploration, so do we. There's a human desire to learn and make life better on this planet for everyone".

 

Andy Thomas joined the astronauts corp at NASA in 1992, and his first space flight was in 1996.