NASA officially set March 11 as the firm launch date for shuttle Discovery today as other agency colleagues continued to gear up for the launch tonight of a Delta II rocket and a robotic planet-hunter.
Senior shuttle program managers and engineers laid out the rationale for launching Discovery with suspect main propulsion system valves in a formal Flight Readiness Review. They determined the newly installed valves on Discovery are flawless and that its safe to fly seven astronauts on an International Space Station assembly mission. A news conference will be held at 2:30 p.m.
You can watch the news briefing live here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box on the righthand side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage of the event. Be sure to refresh this page for periodic updates.
We'll have live NASA TV coverage tonight of the Delta II launch starting at 8:30 p.m. We'll also send text message alerts on the status of the launch. Sign up here to receive those alerts on your cell phone.
The Delta and its payload -- NASA's Kepler spacecraft -- are scheduled to launch at 10:49 p.m. from Launch Complex 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
There will be two, three-minute launch windows: 10:49 p.m. through 10:52 p.m. and 11:13 p.m. through 11:16 p.m.
Check back for updates during the day as NASA and United Launch Alliance prepare to move the Mobile Service Tower away from the 12-story rocket at 1 p.m. The terminal countdown will begin at 5:30 p.m.
The weather forecast looks great. Air Force meteorologists say there is less than a five-percent chance that conditions will force a launch delay.
Check out the Official Launch Forecast from the Air Force 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron.
The Air Force is asking mariners and aviators to steer clear of a launch danger zone off the coast of Cape Canaveral and restricted airspace around the launch site.
Click here for a map of the Launch Hazard Area off the coast of Cape Canaveral.
Click here for a map showing Restricted Airspace around the launch site.
You can follow along with the countdown the official United Launch Alliance Kepler Mission Booklet It contains information on countdown activities and the flight of the Delta II rocket.
Click here to download and save NASA's official Kepler Press Kit
Click here for NASA's Kepler Fact Sheet.
Check out James Dean's most excellent story on the unprecedented mission here: Kepler Looks For ET's Home
For a look at other missions coming up, take a look at our new Florida Today Space Coast Launch Schedule.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
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