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Shuttle Endeavour poised for Saturday evening launch BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: July 10, 2009 
The shuttle Endeavour's countdown is ticking smoothly toward launch Saturday evening on a delayed space station assembly mission to attach an experiment platform to a Japanese lab module, to replace aging solar array batteries and to deliver spare parts and supplies.
"Overall, our primary concern on launch day is for thunderstorms and showers to be in the area, particularly within 20 nautical miles of the shuttle landing facility and 10 nautical miles of the launch pad," said shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters. Good weather is expected at NASA's emergency runways in the United States and Europe, Winters said, "so the primary concern will be here at the Kennedy Space Center." The forecast improves to 60 percent "go" on Sunday with a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions should launch be delayed to Monday. "Bottom line from the team, everybody's go for launch, we have no major issues at all," said Mike Moses, director of shuttle launch integration at the Kennedy Space Center. "We're in really good shape for launch tomorrow. ... We do have some challenges with the weather, but we'll just work through those. I don't worry about things I can't control and I certainly cannot control the weather."
Engineers loaded liquid hydrogen and oxygen into Endeavour's on-board storage tanks overnight Thursday to power the ship's three electricity producing fuel cells. Countdown milestones today include main engine checks, heat shield inspections, communications system activation and retraction of a protective gantry that will set the stage for fueling. If all goes well, engineers plan to begin pumping a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen into Endeavour's external tank beginning around 10:14 a.m. Saturday. The hydrogen and oxygen sections of the huge tank should be topped off and in "stable replenish" mode by 1:14 p.m. The astronauts plan to begin strapping in around 4:20 p.m. Two previous launch attempts on June 13 and 17 were scrubbed during fueling when a hydrogen vent line attached to the side of the tank began leaking as the hydrogen section of the tank neared its full load. Engineers ultimately determined the vent port housing was built into the tank slightly out of alignment, causing a quick-disconnect fitting to pull away slightly under cryogenic conditions. After the second delay, engineers replaced a rigid one-piece Teflon seal with a more flexible two-piece seal and used shim-like washers on the vent line attachment plate to make it less susceptible to temperature-induced movement. To make sure the repairs would work, Endeavour's tank was re-loaded with oxygen and hydrogen July 1. Sensors detected no measurable leakage and engineers are confident the system will work as required Saturday. Here are highlights for the remainder of Endeavour's countdown (in EDT; best viewed with fixed-width font): EDT...........EVENT Fri 07/10/09 02:00 PM......Begin 13-hour 14-minute hold 04:00 PM......ASP crew module inspection 05:30 PM......Comm activation 06:00 PM......Crew module voice checks 06:45 PM......L-1 engineering briefing 07:00 PM......Crew weather briefing 07:00 PM......Flight crew equipment late stow 11:00 PM......Rotating service structure to park position Sat 07/11/09 12:00 AM......Final heat shield, debris inspection 12:00 AM......Ascent switch list 03:14 AM......Resume countdown 03:44 AM......Pad clear of non-essential personnel 03:34 AM......Hydraulic power unit confidence check 04:24 AM......Fuel cell activation 05:14 AM......Booster joint heater activation 05:44 AM......Master events controller pre-flight test 05:59 AM......Tanking weather update 06:44 AM......Final fueling preps; launch area clear 07:14 AM......Red crew assembled 07:59 AM......Fuel cell integrity checks complete 08:14 AM......Begin 2-hour built-in hold (T-minus 6 hours) 08:24 AM......Safe-and-arm PIC test 09:14 AM......External tank ready for loading 09:37 AM......Mission management team tanking meeting 09:44 AM......Crew medical checks 10:14 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 6 hours) 10:14 AM......LO2, LH2 transfer line chilldown 10:24 AM......Main propulsion system chill down 10:24 AM......LH2 slow fill 10:54 AM......LO2 slow fill 10:59 AM......Hydrogen ECO sensors go wet 11:04 AM......LO2 fast fill 11:07 AM......Crew medical checks 11:14 AM......LH2 fast fill 01:09 PM......LH2 topping 01:14 PM......LH2 replenish 01:14 PM......LO2 replenish 01:14 PM......Begin 2-hour 30-minute hold (T-minus 3 hours) 01:14 PM......Closeout crew to white room 01:14 PM......External tank in stable replenish mode 01:29 PM......Astronaut support personnel comm checks 01:59 PM......Pre-ingress switch reconfig 02:30 PM......NASA TV coverage begins 03:17 PM......Final crew weather briefing 03:27 PM......Crew suit up begins 03:44 PM......Resume countdown (T-minus 3 hours) 03:49 PM......Crew departs O&C building 04:19 PM......Crew ingress 05:09 PM......Astronaut comm checks 05:34 PM......Hatch closure 06:04 PM......White room closeout 06:24 PM......Begin 10-minute built-in hold (T-minus 20m) 06:34 PM......NASA test director countdown briefing 06:34 PM......Resume countdown (T-minus 20m) 06:35 PM......Backup flight computer to OPS 1 06:39 PM......KSC area clear to launch 06:45 PM......Begin final built-in hold (T-minus 9m) 07:15 PM......NTD launch status verification 07:30:35 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 9m) 07:32:05 PM...Orbiter access arm retraction 07:34:35 PM...Launch window opens 07:34:35 PM...Hydraulic power system (APU) start 07:34:40 PM...Terminate LO2 replenish 07:35:35 PM...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic test 07:35:35 PM...IMUs on line 07:35:40 PM...Aerosurface steering profile 07:36:05 PM...Main engine steering test 07:36:40 PM...LO2 tank pressurization 07:36:45 PM...Gaseous oxygen vent arm retraction 07:37:00 PM...Fuel cells on line 07:37:05 PM...Clear caution-and-warning memory 07:37:35 PM...Crew closes visors 07:37:38 PM...LH2 tank pressurization 07:38:45 PM...Orbiter to internal power 07:39:04 PM...Shuttle computers take control of countdown 07:39:14 PM...SRB steering test 07:39:28 PM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds) 07:39:35 PM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)
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The official crew patch for Endeavour's flight to finish building Japan's section of the space station is available in the Spaceflight Now Store.
