Live At The Cape: Delta Fully Fueled For Launch

A Delta II rocket now is fully fueled for flight at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station today as countdown clocks tick toward a planned predawn liftoff.

The 125-foot Delta II and its payload -- a Global Positioning System satellite -- remain scheduled to blast off from Launch Complex 17A during a launch window that will extend from 4:34 a.m. through 4:41 a.m.

The weather forecast still is 90 percent "go" and no technical problems are being worked at this time.

Engineers just complete pumping liquid oxygen into the first stage of the vehicle. Combined with RP-1 fuel, the liquid oxygen oxidizer will power the rocket's Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine.

The RP-1 was loaded onboard the rocket earlier in the countdown, and the second stage was filled with propellants last week.

Engineers now are running through Command Receiver checks. The receivers would route deliberate destruct commands to the rocket's Flight Termination System if the Delta II were to careen out of control and threaten a populated area.