Shuttle Set for Launch After Problems Solved
NASA said its countdown was back on track for a mission in which six astronauts and a laser laboratory will be carried into orbit today by space shuttle Discovery.
Launch is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. PDT today.
Ground crews had been several hours behind on critical countdown chores earlier Thursday. But late in the day, NASA said all technical concerns had been resolved and that nothing stood in Discovery’s way.
Even Florida’s persistently fickle weather seemed willing to yield. Forecasters said there was an 80% chance of good conditions during the launch period.
Technicians are to begin filling the shuttle’s big external tank with fuel at 5:10 a.m. PDT.
A highlight of the 64th shuttle mission will be a spacewalk--the first in 10 years in which astronauts will float entirely free of their spaceship. Two crewmen will forsake tethers to test a new jet backpack intended as a rescue aid for astronauts who will construct a future space station.
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