Live at the Cape: Forecaster 100-Percent "Go"

NASA and United Launch Alliance are about to start loading liquid oxygen into the first stage of a Delta II rocket and the official forecast for a planned 10:49 p.m. launch is now 100-percent "Go."

"We have a real good weather night for you this evening," Air Force meteorologist Joel Tumbiolo told launch controllers and mission directors during a weather briefing just a few minutes ago. "We're looking at a great forecast."

There's no chance of any significant cloud cover, no chance of any precipitation in the area and Tumbiolo says there is no chance that the weather will prohibit a launch tonight. The winds will be light, the temperatures will be a mild 62 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit at launch time and even upper atmosphere winds are going to be calm.

It just doesn't get much better than that.

The Delta II and NASA's Kepler planet-hunter remain scheduled for a 10:49 p.m. liftoff from Launch Complex 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

That's right across the port from Jetty Park, so a large crowd probably will gather there for launch. Cocoa Beach also would be a great viewing site. The rocket will fly due east, and because of the way the Cape juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, the rocket will look like its flying parallel to the beach as it wings its way toward orbit.

NASA will have two, three-minute opportunities to put the Kepler spacecraft on course for its operational orbit. The first will extend from 10:49 p.m. to 10:52 p.m. and the second will open at 11:13 p.m. and close at 11:16 p.m.

Engineers now are loading liquid oxygen into the first stage of the rocket -- the oxidizer that will be combined with the fuel RP-1 to power the Delta II's Rocketdyne RS-27 main engine. A total of 10,042 gallons of the high-refined kerosene RP-1 was loaded into tanks on the first stage about 45 minutes ago.

You can watch live coverage of the countdown and launch here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box on the righthand side of this page to launch our NASA TV viewer.

And don't forget to refresh this page for periodic updates.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge and save the NASA TV screen grab of the Delta II rocket venting on the pad at Launch Complex 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.