Posted on 02/23/2011 2:32:10 PM PST by Pyro7480
NASA Managers: It's a "Go" for Launch
At today's pre-launch news conference NASA's mission management team have given their unanimous approval for space shuttle Discovery's launch tomorrow at 4:50 p.m. EST.
"Everything is on track and going beautifully with the countdown," said Mike Moses, mission management team chair. "We're really looking forward to a very action-packed, successful mission and everything is on track."
Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director, agreed that everything is going extremely well with the launch countdown. He also acknowledged the processing teams who worked on Discovery, its flight systems and ground elements. "As we're powering up (the systems) we're seeing no problems at all."
The rotating service structure will be rolled away from Discovery at around 8 p.m. revealing it for the last time on the launch pad. Loading of the external fuel tank will begin at around 7:25 a.m. tomorrow morning. "We're not tracking any issues and it looks like Discovery will fly this time," said Leinbach.
Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer, reported that the weather remains exceptional with only a 20 percent chance that weather will be prohibitive at launch time. The only slight issue may be a localized off-shore shower in the late afternoon. The forecast during tanking also is looking very good.
At 7:15 a.m. EST NASA TV will begin coverage of the fueling of the external tank. Launch coverage for Discovery's final mission to the International Space Station will begin at 11:30 a.m.
Preparing to close the access door.
The hatch is closed.
Weather is still a go.
It appears that the cabin close-out crew was removing a piece of tape from the hatch and pulled off a small chunk of a protective tile. They’re evaluating it at this time.
I’d hate to think they’ll scrub this thing just because the close-out crew fudged up the door.
A small tile ding, near the hatch, has been patched.
It's overcast today - probably won't be able to see the launch from our backyard. Discovery flew over my house in 2007 returning to the cape.
All systems are still go.
Place Mark
Any one have a link to nasa live.
my usual one is not working.
Range Safety just went NO GO due to a problem with their computer. They’re attempting to fix it in time to launch. Stand by...
Ok got it now.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
This is working for me. They just reported a problem with range control.
Range is a no-go due to computer problems, Windows 7?
Launch Director, Flight Systems, and Mission Control Houston have agreed to allow the countdown to continue to T-5:00 to allow Range Safety to get their problem fixed. If they can’t, then the launch is NO GO.
Thanks for the link
Thank you for the ping, as always, Kevin!!
I am tuned in on NASA TV live streaming on web:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
All flight departments reporting GO for launch ... except for Range Safety.
Will resume count down to 5 minutes starting at 4:41:27 or so. Will hold at 5 mins.
Thank you for starting a live thread on this truly historic occasion.
Launch window is only 5 minutes long.
I predict...a scrub.
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