Saturday, April 03, 2010

Discovery "go" for Monday launch to space station

Mission managers today gave Discovery a unanimous "go" to continue counting down toward a 6:21 a.m. Monday liftoff on a 13-day International Space Station re-supply mission.

"The countdown is in great shape and we're not tracking any issues," said Pete Nickolenko, the mission's NASA launch director.

Kennedy Space Center teams are continuing to close out orbiter and ground support equipment systems in preparation for rollback of launch pad 39A's rotating tower around 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

Fueling of Discovery's 15-story external tank is set for 9 p.m. Sunday.

Discovery's seven astronauts will deliver 17,000 pounds of science experiments, new equipment and supplies including food and water in a cylindrical "moving van," the Italian-built cargo carrier named Leonardo.

Two spacewalkers will also replace a pair of ammonia tanks and a gyroscope device, and retrieve a Japanese experiment outside the station.

"We're really excited about this mission, both in terms of what it's going to do to position the ISS through 2020, and the science that we're able to get on board for the ISS to go do what it needs to do, and demonstrate its true ability as a national laboratory," said Mike Moses, shuttle launch integration manager.

Mission managers discussed and cleared two potential concerns with the shuttle's twin solid rocket boosters, both of which related to issues uncovered during static test firings of motors not being used by Discovery.

In one case, an air bubble apparently caused some uneven burning of propellant near where two booster segments join, causing some abnormal charring to an insulating liner.

The second issue involved an erratic sensor in a hydraulic power unit that controls the booster nozzle's ability to steer.

That failure, related to cracked wiring in a magnetic coil, was considered well known, and neither issue is considered a threat to the launch if the problems reoccur.

"Both are perfectly good for flight, no issues whatsoever, and we're good to go," said Moses.

As a precaution, crews today are also checking the torque on bolts around one of Discovery's crew cabin windows, after it was noticed that some had loosened on Atlantis in its hangar. That work should be finished by this evening.

The weather forecast remains 80 percent "go." There's a possibility of fog that could obscure visibility of KSC's runway, which would be a problem if Discovery needed to make an emergency landing after an aborted launch.

But Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters is optimistic that winds from the east will keep temperatures from dropping to levels that would create more fog.

"Overall the weather does look very good," she said. "We should get a nice sunrise right along the plume after the launch as well, so it should be a really beautiful morning for launch."


Another launch day bonus: the space station may be seen crossing the horizon about 20 minutes before liftoff.

If necessary, Discovery would try to make a second attempt by Wednesday, then stand down for 72 hours to avoid creating a conflict between Discovery's landing and the launch of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral.

Discovery is expected to land April 18, a day before the rocket launch.

IMAGES: Florida Today's Michael R. Brown captured these images this morning while setting up remote cameras at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A. The osprey nest is located at the entrance to the Launch Complex 39 Press Site, across the street from the Vehicle Assembly Building.

3 comments:

JERRY W. said...

IT IS HARD FOR ME TOO BELIEVE WE ARE JUST THROWING THIS
CAPABILITY AWAY AND NOTHING ON THR DRAWING BOARDS FOR
THE FUTURE

Jerry W. said...

Discovery's seven astronauts will deliver 17,000 pounds of science experiments, new equipment and supplies including food and water in a cylindrical "moving van," the Italian-built cargo carrier named Leonardo.

How is the Falcon9 going to delivery this weight payload when
it can only deliver 3,775 pounds of payload??

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USSPC19kGnc

Launch!