Launch teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center are working through the countdown milestones with no issues that would delay space shuttle Endeavour’s launch Monday, May 16 at 8:56 a.m. EDT to the International Space Station. The countdown entered an 8-hour built-in hold at 11 a.m. at T-19 hours and will pick up again at 7 p.m. Technicians at Launch Pad 39A have completed loading cryogenic reactants into Endeavour’s fuel cell storage tanks. Teams will remove the orbiter mid-body umbilical unit, which was used to load the propellants into the power reactant distribution system later this afternoon.
Current forecasts still call for a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time.
The Mission Management Team will meet at 3 p.m. MMT chair and Space Shuttle Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses, Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach and Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters will hold a news conference at 4 p.m. live on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.