By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

NASA’s mission management team this afternoon gave the official OK for Saturday’s planned launch of Shuttle Discovery.

Mother Nature, on the other hand, doesn’t appear as certain.

“U.S. Air Force weather officers are forecasting a 60-percent chance of weather prohibiting a launch attempt on Saturday,” NASA said in Thusday’s Space Shuttle Processing Status Report. “The primary weather concerns are anvil clouds from inland thunderstorms, cumulus clouds within 10 nautical miles of the flight path, and showers within 20 nautical miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility. The forecast is similar in the event of a 24-hour delay.”
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By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

NASA managers have selected July 1 as the launch date for the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121. Lift off is scheduled for 3:48 p.m. EDT. The date was determined after two days of flight-readiness meetings concluded earlier today.

Discovery’s launch to the International Space Station has a window running from July 1 until July 19. During the 12-day mission, Discovery’s crew will test new hardware and techniques to improve shuttle safety, as well as deliver supplies and make repairs to the station.

Based on the current schedule, the mission will be the first in nearly a year and only the second since Columbia burned up in the atmosphere while attempting to return to earth in February, 2003. All seven astronauts aboard were killed in the accident — which is blamed on foam falling off the shuttle’s external tank and creating a hole in the orbiter’s left wing.

Foam remains a concern to the NASA managers for the upcoming flight.
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