The official weather forecast for Wednesday's 6:03 p.m EDT launch time calls for a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions.
By delaying 48 hours to Wednesday, engineers will have time to repair a rocket thruster rain cover that has pulled loose slightly. However, slipping to Wednesday means the crew likely will have to give up one day of their space station construction mission to undock and get out of the way before the Russian Soyuz supply ship arrives.
The outlook for Thursday's 5:37 p.m. EDT launch time has a 40 percent chance of good weather.
A fellow blog reader asked what the maximum fuel and drain limitations are for the external tank. The maximum number of fuel and drain cycles is 13.
Now let's cross our fingers for a Wednesday launch!
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3 comments:
doesn't the space station have two ports to dock at?
expanding on the "fellow blog readers" question on the fuel/drain cycles.
what is procedure if the maximum number gets reached? does the tank have to come off the vehicle for a cleaning of some sort?
There are two ports to dock at the ISS, but one of those ports has an emergency Soyuz if needed.
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