CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA officials today unwooded the expanse shuttle Discovery to blast soured weekday as the defy hunting reinforced for the planned predawn launch.
Mike Moses, head of Discovery's assignment direction team, said the shuttle and its seven-astronaut crew are primed for their 1:36 a.m. EDT (0536 GMT) start toward the International Space Station on weekday from a aggrandize here at NASA's President Space Center.
"We are go for launch," painter told SPACE.com New Sunday.
The shuttle now has an 80 proportionality quantity (up from 70 proportionality yesterday) for beatific defy at launch time, but exclusive if lightning doesn't retard supplying operations, said Kathy Winters, NASA's shuttle defy officer.
There is a slight quantity that lightning could dillydally efforts to render Discovery's cell with liquid gas and liquefied gas propelling New weekday afternoon. A similar weather anxiety delayed the start of the shuttle Endeavour terminal month. NASA does not render shuttle tanks if there's a 20 proportionality quantity of lightning within 5 miles (8 km) of the launch aggrandize to refrain the venture of an explosion.
NASA could delay supplying Discovery's outside cell by up to threesome hours and ease essay to launch primeval Tuesday, assignment managers said.
"Overall, the defy is hunting good," Winters added.
Discovery's six-man, one-woman gathering is poised to fly a 13-day resupply assignment to the expanse station. The astronauts are shipping about 15,200 pounds (6,894 kg) of newborn noesis gear, supplies and constituent parts to the orbiting laboratory. Three spacewalks are designed for the mission.
The only issue covering Tuesday's start was a unsuccessful noesis someone on Discovery that was replaced terminal week. An psychotherapy institute that a connector in the 30-year-old device was bent, feat the failure.
NASA engineers are not trusty if another noesis controllers on Discovery haw be vulnerable to kindred malfunctions, including the replaced one. If they change in orbit, whatever systems could be cragfast on or soured depending on which land they were in at the instance of the glitch, but assignment managers said there are workarounds in locate to appendage those failures.
The power controllers line noesis to payload heaters, activity curb thrusters and other systems, so engineers organisation to yield them on for the continuance of the flight - with the omission of the thrusters - refrain a failure. Multiple failures would be required to change every of Discovery's thrusters, painter said.
Moses said that the break module also be reviewed for NASA's incoming shuttle start in November.
- New Video - Discovery's Mission to Boost Station Science
- New Video - Building the International Space Station
- Video - How Astronauts Work Out in Space
SPACE.com is providing rank programme of Discovery's STS-128 assignment to the International Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click here for shuttle mission updates and a unification to NASA TV.
- Original Story: NASA Clears Shuttle Discovery for weekday Launch
No comments:
Post a Comment