NASA and contractor engineers will be called to their stations at the Kennedy Space Center later today to support the scheduled rollout of shuttle Discovery.
With the shuttle mounted atop a mobile launcher platform, an Apollo-era crawler transporter will pick up the 11 million pound load and begin to edge its way out of the Vehicle Assembly Building around 8 p.m. EDT.
Weather permitting, that is. Isolated thunderstorms have been sweeping through the northern end of Brevard County today, so NASA managers will be keeping close tabs on conditions in the Launch Complex 39 area.
Discovery and seven astronauts are scheduled to launch Oct. 23 on a mission to deliver the U.S. Harmony module to the International Space Station. The multihatch module will serve as a gateway to still-to-be-launched European and Japanese science laboratories.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
2 comments:
Before all of the strike comments start:
Iinstead of whining about this strike, why doesnt everybody devote the same amount of energy towards pushing NASA to dump the Ares I launch vehicle for a more direct shuttle derivative launch vehicle. If NASA continues down the path of Ares I, everybody is going to suffer, regardless of union or non union. The Exploration Systems Architecture Study was nothing but a bait and switch. What was once sold as a cheap and safe shuttle deriviative has become an overly expensive, completely new launch vehicle that will still underperform. It's being pushed for no reason other than political. A direct derivative launch vehicle will be cheaper, just as safe, close the gap between Shuttle and Constellation, and provide much greater flexibility and success for Constellation. If you do not know anything about the Ares I vs. DIRECT debate, please visit www.directlauncher.com. There is a very technically detailed proposal at that site, which was worked on by various NASA engineers and other concerned volunteers. This proposal was recently presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
...and Florida Today, you guys really need to open your eyes and do an article on all of this. This is real space news. Leave this strike stuff to the Business section where it belongs.
At our meeting today, we were asked to provide emails for the House Representatives that signed the letter to United Space Alliance. Upon doing some research, I found out that many Congressmen don't have a direct email, and most of those that do, reject emails that are outside of their district without reading them.
On Monday we will contact the Legislative Department, whose hard work we can thank for getting the Congressional support for the letter, and we'll find out the best way for everyone to send thanks to those Congressmen who supported us, and the best way to contact local legislators to see where their support is.
Until then, here's the Congresspeople and their states:
Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee
Mark Udall of Colorado, Chairman of the House Space and Aerospace Subcommittee
Jerry Costello of Illinois
David Wu of Oregon
Nick Lampson of Texas
Mike Ross of Arkansas
Steve Rothman of New Jersey
Ben Chandler of Kentucky
Charlie Melancon of Louisiana
Brian Baird of Washington
Lynn Woolsey of California
Brad Miller of North Carolina
Dan Lipinski of Illinois
George Miller of California
Al Green of Texas
Russ Carnahan of Missouri
Harry Mitchell of Arizona
Charlie Wilson of Ohio
Gene Green of Texas
Laura Richardson of California
Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas
Chet Edwards of Texas
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