Severe weather descends on the Kennedy Space Center late Thursday. Endeavour's launch pad is faintly illuminated to the right. Photo Credit/Spaceflightnow.com
Severe weather brought high winds, rain and the threat of hail to the Kennedy Space Center late Thursday, forcing a delay in NASA’s plans to retract the protective Rotating Service Structure that surrounds shuttle Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A.
The Launch Control Team was hopeful the stormy weather, a product of the same deadly system that spawned tornadoes in Alabama and other parts of the Southeast earlier this week, would not delay efforts to launch Endeavour and her crew of six astronauts to the International Space Station.
The lift off was scheduled for Friday at 3:47 p.m., EDT.
However, plans to move the RSS away from Endeavour on Thursday at 7 p.m. slipped to 8:30 p.m., with severe weather still in the area. Earlier in the day, NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding said the RSS move could be delayed by up to four or five hours without a launch impact — if other preparations could continue unimpeded.
Shuttle launch weather officer Kathy Winter altered the launch forecast, dropping the prospects of favorable weather from 80 percent to 70 percent. The potential show stoppers included lingering low cloud cover and high cross winds at the shuttle’s emergency runway, both from a storm front that was originally predicted to move through Central Florida much earlier on Thursday.
The fueling of Endeavour’s external fuel tank was scheduled to get under way on Friday at 6:30 a.m., a milestone that could not be delayed too long.
NASA could make up to four launch attempts through next Wednesday before being forced to stand down until May 8. The break would allow for the launching of an Atlas V rocket from neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with a Pentagon missile warning satellite. After May 8, Endeavour would have to wait until May 10 to try again because of plans by three International Space Station Crew members to return to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The shuttle mission would then have through May 28 to launch.
If the weather clears, President Obama and the first family are among an estimated 700,000 spectators expected to descend on Central Florida to witness the next to last shuttle launch.
Endeavour’s crew has trained for nearly two years to deliver the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an external platform with spare parts to the International Space Station. The shuttle crew also plans four spacewalks outside the space station.
Scheduling calls for Endeavour commander Mark Kelly, pilot Greg H. Johnson, mission specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel, Greg Chamitoff and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency to begin boarding the shuttle just before 1 p.m., EDT.
Endeavour’s 25th and final flight is scheduled for 14 days, though mission managers will have the option of extending the flight by up to two days.