Yup, the Discovery shuttle is ready to launch into space following the successful maintenance mission of Endeavour.
Discovery’s launch countdown begun late Friday night and is scheduled to blast off early Tuesday morning.
Forecasters predicted that conditions suitable for the launch on Tuesday will be 70 percent – a very good chance, I might add.
The crew of seven will be on a delivery mission – taking about 17,000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the international space station.
The folks at NASA are crossing their fingers on this blast off, coz they only have until August 30 to launch Discovery. If they don’t, a Japanese cargo ship and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft are both set to fly in September, will have to be prioritized and they’d have to sit this one out – or at least until the others return.
Hmmmn, I hope Discovery doesn’t follow its predecessor, Endeavor, who took five failed launch attempts before finally taking off on the eve of Apollo 11’s 40th anniversary launch.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8gpZRl3t8mV2RxsVjIuPU75dJeAD9A7M6CG0
