After two scheduled launches were delayed, NASA has decided to move forward with an Independence Day launch of the Shuttle Discovery at 2:38 EDT at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A small piece of foam fell off the external fuel tank over the weekend, and engineers conisdered halting the launch again. A panel of NASA scientists, however, concluded unanimously that their was little conern and to move forward with the scheduled launch. The luanch had been delayed on Saturday and Sunday due to weather concerns. CNN:
NASA decided to go ahead with the launch after finding a pencil-sized crack in the foam insulation around the shuttle's fuel tank on Monday.
"It all looks fine, and the structure is in good shape," Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier told reporters.
The astronauts were all smiles as they suited up Tuesday morning. They waved American flags as they walked out to the bus that would take them to the launch pad.
Cmdr. Steve Lindsey appeared relaxed, shaking a crew assistant's hand before entering the cockpit where he was strapped into his seat for the ride into space.
Mission Specialist Lisa Nowak was the last to take her seat, and the hatch was sealed at 12:29 p.m. ET.
"They were feeling great, they feel ready to go," said astronaut Scott Kelly, whose brother Mark Kelly is the pilot of the shuttle.
So far, there's an 80 percent chance that the weather won't interfere with the launch. CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers reported some showers developing off the coast of Florida later in the day.
However, crosswinds at the shuttle landing facililty are almost at the limit for a safe return-to-launch-site abort landing, according to the official NASA Shuttle blog.
Earlier Tuesday, in the course of the latest inspections, a circuit breaker in the shuttle's backup heating system wasn't working, NASA officials said, but it was a problem that could be fixed quickly.
Plans call for a 12-day mission to deliver supplies to the space station and drop off European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, of Germany, who will join the Expedition 13 crew members already there.
Two astronauts, Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum, will conduct two spacewalks to test a new shuttle robotic arm and to repair a damaged piece of equipment outside the space station.
They might also do a third spacewalk to test repair techniques on the shuttle's thermal protection system.
As I said before, let us all keep the brave crew and their families in our thoughts and prayers.
I don't understand how we can still spend so much money doing test rocket launches while we're at war. People are homeless. There's an AIDS epidemic in africa. The genocide in Darfur. South Korea's missile launches.
Should we really be placing this much money into NASA?
I'm more considered about giving tax cuts to the rich than money to NASA.