Fri, Mar 13, 2009
Weather Forecast Is Good For Twilight Liftoff At 7:43 pm
EDT
NASA says repairs are under way on the Ground Umbilical Carrier
Plate (GUCP) interface, where gaseous hydrogen leaked during
Wednesday's launch attempt of the space shuttle Discovery.
Once repairs are completed, the interface will be retested and
leak checked before Sunday's planned launch attempt at 7:43 pm.
The Mission Management Team will meet on Saturday at 1 pm to
review the data and the progress of the teams, and make a final
determination on the launch. A Prelaunch News Conference will be
held following the MMT to announce whether the countdown will
proceed towards T-minus zero Sunday evening.
The weather forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of
acceptable conditions at launch time, though Shuttle Weather
Officer Kathy Winters says meteorologists are watching for low
cloud ceilings.
As far as weather conditions go, Sunday represents the last best
chance for NASA to launch Discovery before the forecast
deteriorates at the start of the week.
The STS-119 mission would last 13 days if Discovery launches
Sunday; if launched later, that timeline could be compromised.
As ANN reported, NASA discovered a potentially
catastrophic hydrogen leak while fueling the orbiter Wednesday
morning. The leak developed on the piping that runs from the fixed
service structure to a valve at the intertank section of the
shuttle's external tank. The pipe moves hydrogen gas away from the
shuttle and to a flare stack near the launch pad that burns it away
safely.
Originally scheduled to liftoff February 12, Discovery was
grounded for a month as NASA examined hydrogen flow control valves
linking the external tank to the orbiter. One of those valves was
found cracked after Endeavour returned from its mission in
November; NASA opted to swap the valves originally installed on
Discovery, with lower-time parts.
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