LIVE IMAGES: Refresh this page for updates and the latest still images from a live video feed from the Air Force 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron (left) and Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can also click any of the images to enlarge them.
A new national weather satellite is scheduled to blast off tonight aboard a powerful Delta IV rocket but stormy weather could thwart those plans.
The 206-foot-tall United Launch Alliance rocket is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a launch window that will extend from 6:14 p.m. to 7:14 p.m.
But meteorologists say there is a 70-percent chance that seasonal summer thunderstorms could push electrically charged clouds into the area during the one-hour window, forcing a scrub.
A 20-story rocket flying through an electrically charged cloud could trigger destructive bolts of lightning, causing a half-billion-dollar mission failure.
You can check out all the details here in this Official Launch Forecast from the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron, which provides forecasting services for all launches from the air base and NASA's nearby Kennedy Space Center.
A 34-story Mobile Service Tower that weighs nine-million pounds is scheduled to be backed away from the Delta IV starting around 6:15 a.m., a two-hour move that will clear the way for the start of a terminal countdown.
A key checkpoint will be about noon. Meteorologists will lay out the forecast and mission managers will decide whether to proceed with hazardous fuel-loading operations.
Count on live coverage here in The Flame Trench.
We'll have live updates throughout the day, and you can watch live NASA TV countdown-and-launch coverage right here beginning at 4 p.m. Simply click to NASA TV box at the righthand side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer, and be sure to refresh this page for periodic updates.
The Delta IV is slated to carry into space a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) that will monitor weather systems across the western hemisphere and provide advance warning of flash floods, tornadoes, hail storms and hurricanes.
Check out all the details on the $499 million mission in this Official NASA Press Kit.
Get a quick look here in this NASA Fact Sheet.
And for countdown bar charts, information on the flight trajectory and other details, check out this United Launch Alliance Mission Booklet.
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