NASA is stepping through a countdown at Kennedy Space Center and the weather looks as if it will be near-perfect for the planned launch Wednesday of shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts on a mission to complete the U.S. power-production system at the International Space Station.
Two-hundred Japanese scientists, engineers, managers, journalists and dignitaries are here at KSC for the first shuttle launch of 2009, which is scheduled to blast off at 9:20 p.m. Wednesday.
Veteran Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata will fly up to the station on Discovery and carry out the first long-duration mission on the station for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
"I am expecting that this will become a historical event for the Japan's human space program," Kuniaki Shiraki, executive director of the Human Space Systems and Utilization Directorate at JAXA. "We have been waiting a long time for this day to come."
It appears that Mother Nature will cooperate.
Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer at the Air Force 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron, said she expects an upper-level ridge to remain dominant over Florida this week.
As a result, Winters anticipated mild temperatures, and light winds. There's a slight chance of low cloud ceilings, but overall, she said there is a 90-percent chance conditions will be acceptable for launch.
You can click here to get the Official Launch Forecast.
A full moon will be rising about one hour before launch, and it will be climbing the eastern horizon at the time Discovery and its crew are scheduled to lift off.
"It should be a really nice night for a launch, and then hopefully we'll get some good snapshots of that," Winters said.
We'll be webcasting a Florida Today primer on night-launch photography as the sun sets and just before the moon starts to rise. Award-winner Florida Today photographer Craig Bailey will join us at www.floridatoday.com at 7:30 p.m. for a live interview from the rooftop of our blockhouse at the Launch Complex 39 Press Site. He'll have "how-to" tips for those who walk to capture a great night shot of Discovery setting sail from Kennedy Space Center.
You can watch live NASA TV coverage of the countdown and launch starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, and we'll have several live interviews from the blockhouse.
Among those joining us will be:
++Carter Reznik of The Boeing Co. An expert on the U.S. power-production system, Reznik will join us at 4:30 p.m. explain how the station's massive American solar wings convert solar energy into electricity to power station systems.
++David Cormack, the Boeing Flow Manager for Discovery's prime payload. Cormack will join us at 4:50 p.m. to talk about the fourth and final set of American solar wings, which are integrated into the final segment of the station's central truss.
++Anne Martt of United Space Alliance will join us at 6 p.m. to talk about an interesting heat-shield test that will be performed during Discovery's atmospheric reentry and landing on March 25.
At the launch pad today, technicians will be loading liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the shuttle's fuel cell system. Three fuel cells on the orbiter combine the chemical reactants to produce electricity and potable water as a by-product.
The Rotating Service Structure is scheduled to back away from Discovery around 1 a.m. Wednesday and fuel-loading operations will begin around noon.
The astronauts will suit up about 5 p.m. and head to the launch pad at 5:30 p.m.
We'll be updating The Flame Trench throughout the countdown, so refresh this page for the latest new.
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