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curiousuburb
Antimatter Man
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2010-04-03, 07:18

Liftoff of Discovery and the seven-member crew on the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station is set for 6:21 a.m. EDT (10:21 GMT) on April 5.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spaceflightnow.com

Liftoff is targeted for 6:21:23 a.m. Monday, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries launch complex 39A into the plane of the International Space Station's orbit.

Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer, said the only concern is a chance of fog. But overall, the forecast for Monday and Tuesday calls for an 80 percent chance of acceptable conditions.

"Weather is looking very good right now at KSC," she said. "We've been experiencing some really nice weather, it's going to continue into launch day. The only concern we do have is for fog to form the morning of launch.

"Right now, we're forecasting a wind from the east. It's very light, though, and if it happens to turn around and give us a land breeze, the temperatures could drop enough to saturation and cause some fog in the area. We have a four-mile visibility constraint for return-to-launch-site weather. So that's our primary concern for launch and right now, we're going with a 20 percent chance of that occurring."
And as a 'twilight' launch, visibility should be unique if you're on the Eastern seaboard of the USA.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Space.com


And this upcoming launch could also be the very first one where a shuttle will take a track parallel to the Atlantic seaboard while much of the East Coast is experiencing morning twilight conditions.

On those occasions when a shuttle has been launched in the dark of night, its visibility was due primarily to the bright yellow-orange glow of its main rocket engines. But should the upcoming launch of Discovery – its next-to-last planned mission – go off on schedule next Monday morning, its visibility might be enhanced by sunlight reflecting off both the orbiter and its orange external fuel tank; a rather unique occurrence!



[Click chart for source story]
While in theory they could add another flight using the 'contingency rescue stack', Charlie Bolden seems to think there won't be any extension... which means after this there will be only three more missions.

I'm trying to find a way to get to FL to watch one of them in person, but travel and timing will be challenging given the chance of a scrub borking the booking.

Until then, it's NASA TV for me.

Go Discovery!

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
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