LIVE IMAGES: The images above are from live video feeds in the Launch Complex 39 area at Kennedy Space Center. They will automatically refresh to the most up-to-the-minute image every 30 seconds.NASA's final inspection team is at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A after a flawless fuel-loading operation that set the stage for the planned launch tonight of shuttle Endeavour on an International Space Station assembly mission.
Endeavour and seven astronauts remain scheduled for a 6:03 p.m. launch on a mission to deliver the third and final section of the Japanese Kibo science research facility to the orbiting outpost.
The weather forecast calls for a 60 percent chance conditions will be acceptable to launch Endeavour after five scrubbed attempts.
The final inspection team will use telescopes, binoculars and laser imaging devices to spot any potentially dangerous build-ups of ice on the shuttle's 15-story external tank, which now is filled with more than a half-million gallons of supercold propellants.
The engineers want to make certain no chunks of ice could break free during launch and damage the shuttle. The prime concern is for heat-shield components that protect the spaceship and the astronauts during atmospheric reentry.
The Endeavour astronauts are preparing for their third trip to the pad in the past four days.
Mission commander Mark Polansky and his six crewmates will don partial pressure launch-and-entry suits at 1:34 p.m. and then depart crew quarters at the Operations & Checkout Building in the KSC Industrial Area at 2:13 p.m. They'll board NASA's silver-bullet AstroVan and make the 12-miles trip out to the pad shortly thereafter.
The astronauts will arrive in the White Room at the 195-level of the launch tower around 2:43 p.m. They all should be aboard the shuttle in time for hatch closure at 3:58 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment