NASA engineers are pumping more than a half-million gallons of supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into shuttle Atlantis' external tank as countdown proceeds toward a planned 2:45 p.m. liftoff.The three-hour operation began at 5:21 a.m. with the chill-down of propellant lines running from storage tanks at launch pad 39A through a mobile launcher platform and the orbiter's main propulsion system to the 15-story tank.
NASA will be keeping a close eye on the performance of four fuel-level sensors that failed back in December, triggering two launch scrubs and a two-month delay in a mission to deliver a new European science laboratory to the International Space Station.
A key test of the sensors will be coming up just before 6:30 a.m. EST. Should two of the four sensors fail again, NASA would scrub today's launch attempt.
You can check out a Video Report on the tanking operation here: Shuttle fuel-loading on tap.
A NASA Fact Sheet on the sensors is here: ECO-sensor fact sheet. .
NASA TV coverage of the tanking operation is being webcast live here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the link below the image above to launch our NASA TV viewer.
The weather forecast for launch remains dismal.
The remnants of a killer cold front that spawned deadly tornadoes in the southern U.S. earlier this week is approaching central Florida, bringing with it the real possibility of rainshowers, thunderstorms and stiff crosswinds at the shuttle runway.
NASA mission managers are hanging on to hopes that the front might stall or slow in its approach, leaving skies over the Kennedy Space Center clear enough to get the Atlantis mission off the ground.
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