Monday, August 24, 2009

Discovery unveiled predawn, ready for launch

Launch crews at the Kennedy Space Center moved the Rotating Service Structure clear of the space shuttle Discovery before dawn this morning.

It's less than 24 hours from the planned launch of Discovery and seven astronauts on a mission to deliver supplies and a new crew member to the International Space Station. They remain on target to liftoff from KSC at 1:36 a.m. Tuesday.

The forecast issued Sunday calls for an 80 percent of good launch weather. However, the weather is a problem for this afternoon's fueling.

Afternoon thunderstorms typical of Florida could stop NASA from fueling because of the threat of lightning. We'll keep you posted all day and night here on the status of the countdown. If you can't be near a computer, sign up for text message alerts to be sent to your cellular phone or other mobile device (click here to sign up).

10 comments:

Conor said...

Fingers crossed that the hydrogen vent line doesn't leak this time.
They fixed the problem last time with a different type of seal, but was the root cause identified? The flange on the tank was reported to have been slightly misaligned, but was that the whole problem?

Anonymous said...

Yes, the flange was slightly misaligned. The fix was to adjust the seal. This should not be a problem today.

Harold Fowler said...

I sure hope the launch goes as planned as we are going to be in the area tomorrow to see the launch!

RT
www.web-tools.us.tc

Anonymous said...

Hope I can see shuttle from north Georgia.

Anonymous said...

John, again, it's not "fueling"! It's "propellant loading". The vehicle is being loaded with both fuel (Liquid Hydrogen) and oxidizer (Liquid Hydrogen). You can get away with just "fueling" a car, aircraft, etc, because the atmosphere in which they operate provides the oxidizer. Launch Vehicles and spacecraft must carry their oxidizer with them.

John Kelly said...

Understood. We're writing not just for a technical audience, but also for a general audience. Most folks understand the operation at the launch pad tonight as "fueling" of the space shuttle. Appreciate the finer point about liquid hydrogen.

Anonymous said...

Understand you are writing to a broader audience, but I think it's an opportunity to explain some things about spaceflight. No need to dumb down your journalism. The term propellant can be summarized in a sentence or two.

John Kelly said...

We're not dumbing it down and we regularly explain the process, over and over again, along with many others. That's the job. It can be summarized in a sentence or two and throughout tonight's coverage it has been explained several times.

Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous. Thanks for the info about the fueling process.... forgot all about the need for an oxidizer.

Anonymous said...

Gee, I thought propellants was what made my deodorant work.