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Crack in shuttle tank foam

Matt | July 3, 2006 |

Engineers conducting a routine check of the shuttle Discovery after Sunday’s launch postponement have found a crack in the foam insulation lining the orbiter’s external tank. The 12cm-long, 3mm-deep breakage was spotted near a bracket close to the top of the fuel tank, Nasa confirmed. Its not yet known what this could mean to the […]

Scrubbed ’till Tuesday

Matt | July 2, 2006 |

Nasa have decided that there is ‘no chance of clear weather’ for the launch of Discovery today. There will now be a 48hr stand-down for another attempt again on Tuesday giving the crew and other tam members time to rest. The crew of Discovery are being helped out of the obiter now. Third time lucky […]

Crew on their way to the pad.

Matt | July 2, 2006 |

The crew of Discovery STS-121 are now on their way to the launch pad and should be baording within the next 25 minutes. Commander Lindsey has just received an updated weather briefing, launch is still looking unlikely due to the weather. Matt [Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Discovery, Discovery, Space, Science, STS-121]

All fueled up

Matt | July 2, 2006 |

Discovery’s fuel tanks have been filled with the 500,000 gallons super-cold cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The total tanking time was just short of three hours. Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer, forecasts a 70-percent chance of weather prohibiting a launch this afternoon due to thunderstorms and anvil clouds. If the launch is scrubed again […]

Launch unlikely

Matt | July 2, 2006 |

Latest news from Florida is that the Shuttle launch is unlikely for today. Weather monitoring says that there is only a 30% chance that the weather will allow for a launch. If Discovery can’t launch today it will be Tuesday before they can try again! Matt [Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Discovery, […]

Countdown restarted

Matt | July 2, 2006 |

The launch coundown for the Shuttle Discovery on STS-121 has restarted. Nasa are looking for a launch window that opens up at 19:26 GMT. Nasa are hopeful for a launch but the weather forecast makes it look rather unlikely. There are a number of thunder storms in the area. However there is plenty of time […]

Launch cancelled until tomorrow

Matt | July 1, 2006 |

Due to weather constraints the launch has been scrubbed for today. The aim is to have a 24hr turn around to launch tomorrow at 19:26 GMT. Feel very sorry for everyone involved, especially the crew that will have to wait quite some time before they can be extracted from the orbiter to do it all […]

No go for weather?

Matt | July 1, 2006 |

Currently the launch of Discovery STS-121 is a negative due to weather. There are storms in the launch area but the weather conditions must be acceptable at one of the three Transatlantic Abort Landing (TAL) sites to launch. The sites are Zaragoza, Spain; Moron, Spain; or Istres, France. Today’s preferred landing site is in Moron, […]

About 25 minutes to go!

Matt | July 1, 2006 |

The closeout crew are just leaving the launch tower as we are part way through a 40 minute scheduled hold. The launch window has just been confirmed and is just over four minutes long! There was an issue earlier on with a shuttle thruster but the issue has been cleared for launch by the Mission […]

Crew on board

Matt | July 1, 2006 |

The crew are no on board Discovery ready for the launch of STS-121 and are now conducting air-ground communication checks. There were some concerns earlier on that the weather could preven a launch but a flight in a Shuttle Training Aircraft by Astronaut Mike Bloomfield will assess the weather during the reat of the launch […]