Atlas V Launch Countdown Hits A Snag

The countdown to the launch of an Atlas V rocket just hit a snag but mission managers at this point are pressing ahead while engineers troubleshoot a problem with a ground support computer.

An electrical engineer just reported that a computer that collects accelerometer data from the Atlas V's RD-180 first-stage engine is not working properly.

Engineers are trouble-shooting the problem but they have not been able to re-establish communications with the accelerometers through the computer.

An anomaly team is being set up and will be making a recommendation to launch managers. It's unclear at this point whether this might be a show-stopper.

Stay tuned.