Shuttle commander confident in July 1 launch

Commander Steve Lindsey tells reporters this morning that he sees nothing in the technical discussions leading up to Discovery's flight to indicate delay is in the cards. He says he is confident NASA will be able to launch Discovery, as planned, on July 1 or within a few days of that. The crew talked about the excitement involved in seeing their spaceship on the launch pad nearly ready to go. See the video.

The seven-member crew is at Kennedy Space Center this morning as part of a two-day practice countdown. They met with reporters at launch pad 39B this morning.

NASA engineers involved in the practice countdown reported to the Launch Control Center at 7:30 a.m. Countdown clocks are now ticking for the traditional training exercise, which serves as a dress rehearsal for the launch team and flight crew.

Discovery's astronauts arrived at KSC late Tuesday afternoon. Tropical Storm Alberto forced a delay in crew plans to fly in to the NASA spaceport on Monday.