Delta Rocket Fully Fueled & Ready For 6:17 PM Launch

A towering Delta IV rocket is fully fueled and ready to go as countdown clocks tick toward the planned launch tonight of a new national weather satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The 22-story rocket remains scheduled to blast off from Launch Complex 37B at the beginning of an hour-long window that will open at 6:17 p.m. The $500 million weather satellite atop the rocket ultimately will join two other Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites in orbits 22,300 miles above Earth.

Engineers have completed the loading of supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the rocket's first and second stages, both of which are powered by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne engines. Launch managers say they are tracking no significant technical problems and all systems at this point are "go" for launch. The weather also is cooperating.

You can watch live launch coverage right here in The Flame Trench. Click the NASA TV box on the right side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live NASA TV countdown commentary and launch. NASA's George Diller is providing launch commentary from the Mission Director's Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

You can take part, also, in our CoverItLive coverage from the Florida Today blockhouse at the Launch Complex 39 Press Site at Kennedy Space Center by clicking the CoverItLive box above.