At Thursday morning’s STS-131 countdown status briefing, everything was reported “go,” pointing toward space shuttle Discovery’s liftoff on Monday. Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters gave an 80 percent chance of an on-time launch, with the only potential issues being a slight chance of a few clouds or early morning fog.
NASA Test Director Jeremy Graeber reported that since arriving in Florida earlier in the day, the astronauts had conducted a payload inspection at the pad, and the launch team was in final preparation and looking forward to the beginning of the countdown, which begins at 3 a.m. EDT Friday.
Discovery’s seven astronauts arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Thursday, touching down on Shuttle Landing Facility’s runway at 6:53 a.m. in a modified Gulfstream II jet.
In brief remarks before leaving the runway, Commander Alan Poindexter said that the crew is very happy to be at Kennedy, adding, “We had a short flyby of the pad and saw the good ship Discovery out there and it looks great and we’re ready to go.”