Countdown Status Briefing
During this morning's STS-121 Countdown Status Briefing from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Test Director Pete Nickolenko announced, "All of our systems are in great shape. We're on schedule, we have no issues and our teams are ready," he said. "We're looking forward to launch on Saturday, followed by a safe and successful mission."
Launch Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported there continues to be a 60-percent chance that weather may prevent launch on Saturday. The Space Coast will be dealing with thunderstorms and anvil clouds which are dangerous to launch through. In the event of a 24-hour turnaround, the forecast is identical -- with a 60-percent chance of weather delaying the launch. If the launch is delayed 48 hours, the chance of weather constraints remains at 60 percent. The tanking forecast for Saturday morning looks good, with only a 10-percent chance of a constraint that is primarily due to coastal thunderstorms.
At 4 p.m. today, NASA TV will host a Launch Readiness News Conference with John Shannon, chairman of the Mission Management Team; Mike Suffredini, International Space Station Program manager; Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director; Alan Thirkettle, International Space Station Program manager for the European Space Agency and U.S. Air Force First Lt. Kaleb Nordgren of the 45th Weather Squadron. They will discuss the preparedness for the 32nd flight of Discovery.
At the launch pad, preparations continue with the removal of the mid-deck and flight-deck platforms. Navigational systems are being tested and cryogenic reactants will be loaded into Discovery's fuel cell storage tanks.
Friday's Countdown Status Briefing with NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding, STS-121 Payload Manager Debbie Hahn and Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters will be broadcast live on NASA TV starting at 10 a.m. EDT.
+ NASA TV
The launch countdown officially began at 5 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, at T-43 hours. Included in the countdown is nearly 28 hours of built-in hold time prior to a targeted 3:49 p.m. EDT launch on Saturday; it is the middle point in a launch window that extends for 10 minutes. The launch countdown will be conducted from the newly renovated Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center at Kennedy.
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