Launch countdown operations are on schedule with no issues to report, according to officials at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the STS-131 L-2 prelaunch briefing. Space shuttle Discovery is set to launch at 6:21 a.m. EDT Monday. <\/p>\n
The team evaluated a few minor technical issues that came up late in the count but, "At the end of the day, a unanimous poll from the MMT that we’re "go" for launch," said Mike Moses, space shuttle launch integration manager. "We’re really excited about this mission … and the science we’ll be able to get onboard for the ISS to do what it needs to do and demonstrate its true ability as a national laboratory."
Pete Nickolenko, space shuttle launch director said, "The STS-131 launch countdown is in process and everything is in good shape. The team is doing what it does best and we’re on track and ready to go for Monday." <\/p>\n
Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported that the forecast continues to be very favorable for launch day with only a 20-percent chance that weather will be a concern for liftoff. The only issue Winters mentioned was the possibility of fog in the area. <\/p>\n
The forecast also is looking good for the transatlantic abort, or TAL, sites where the shuttle could land in the unlikely event of an emergency. <\/p>\n
On Sunday at about 9:30 a.m., the Rotating Service Structure that protects the shuttle will be rolled away. Loading of propellants into the external tank is scheduled to begin at around 9 p.m. with tanking coverage starting about 8:45 p.m. on NASA TV found on the Web at www.nasa.gov\/ntv.<\/p>\n
At 1:15 a.m. Monday, live launch coverage will kick off on NASA TV and you also can follow space shuttle Discovery’s exciting countdown to launch with NASA’s Launch Blog from inside Firing Room 3 at Kennedy’s Launch Control Center at http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/shuttle\/launch\/launch_blog.html.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Launch countdown operations are on schedule with no issues to report, according to officials at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the STS-131 L-2 prelaunch briefing. Space shuttle Discovery is set to launch at 6:21 a.m. EDT Monday. <\/p>\n
The team evaluated a few minor technical issues that came up late in the count but, "At the end of the day, a unanimous poll from the MMT that we’re "go" for launch," said Mike Moses, space shuttle launch integration manager. "We’re really excited about this mission … and the science we’ll be able to get onboard for the ISS to do what it needs to do and demonstrate its true ability as a national laboratory."
Pete Nickolenko, space shuttle launch director said, "The STS-131 launch countdown is in process and everything is in good shape. The team is doing what it does best and we’re on track and ready to go for Monday." <\/p>\n
Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported that the forecast continues to be very favorable for launch day with only a 20-percent chance that weather will be a concern for liftoff. The only issue Winters mentioned was the possibility of fog in the area. <\/p>\n
The forecast also is looking good for the transatlantic abort, or TAL, sites where the shuttle could land in the unlikely event of an emergency. <\/p>\n
On Sunday at about 9:30 a.m., the Rotating Service Structure that protects the shuttle will be rolled away. Loading of propellants into the external tank is scheduled to begin at around 9 p.m. with tanking coverage starting about 8:45 p.m. on NASA TV found on the Web at www.nasa.gov\/ntv.<\/p>\n
At 1:15 a.m. Monday, live launch coverage will kick off on NASA TV and you also can follow space shuttle Discovery’s exciting countdown to launch with NASA’s Launch Blog from inside Firing Room 3 at Kennedy’s Launch Control Center at http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/shuttle\/launch\/launch_blog.html.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":612598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shuttle-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20002,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19990\/revisions\/20002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/612598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}