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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.� The space convey Discovery has been privileged for a Monday morning blastoff tobegin one of NASAs last scheduled flights of the reusable space craft fleet.
Top NASA officials clearedDiscovery for launch during a last preflight examination here at the shuttle"sseaside launch site at the Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff is set for 6:21 a.m.EDT (1021 GMT).
"In essence, thecountdown is in great figure and we"re not tracking any issues for launch," NASAtest executive Pete Nickolenko told reporters in a prelaunch briefing.
Mission managers diddiscuss teenager anomalies from NASAs new convey plain space hire upholder exam inUtah and a couple of alternative glitches, but nothing are approaching to poise any regard forDiscoverys launch.
Discovery has an 80percent possibility of great rising weather, with the intensity for haze posing theonly concern.
The convey is slatedto launch only prior to sunrise, creation it the last scheduled convey launch indarkness. The shuttles climb in to space maybe visible, continue permitting, to skywatchers all along the East Coast ofthe United States [howto mark the convey launch].
NASA convey weatherofficer Kathy Winters pronounced the liftoff should be beautiful.
"After the vehiclelaunches, we should get a good morning right along the plume," Winters said,adding that the outcome would light up Discovery in midflight.
NASA plans to flyjust 4 finalshuttle missions, together with Discovery"s, to finish the space station"sconstruction prior to timid the threeorbiter swift in the fall. After that,NASA will have to rely on Russian Soyuz booster to packet astronauts to thespace hire until commercially built American spaceships turn available.
Commanded by veteranspaceflyer Alan Poindexter, Discoverys fourman, threewoman organisation is staid tofly a 13day mission to the International Space Station to broach a nearly27,000pound (12,246 kg) load pod. Three spacewalks are programmed to reinstate anold hire gyroscope and broach a large ammonia coolant tank.
NASA now plansto try to launch Discovery twice in a row prior to the group would mount down forthree days to tip off the shuttles diesel armoured column and equivocate a space hire trafficjam after in the mission, when an unmanned Air Force space hire is slated to launcha secretivespace craft antecedent nearby the shuttles alighting day.
If all goes well,Discoverys Monday launch will come on Easter Monday � one day after thearrival of a Russian Soyuz ferrying 3 new crewmembers to the station. TheSoyuz launched Friday and is due to wharf at the orbiting laboratory on EasterSunday.
Mission managers saidthey have not altered any launch countdown scheduling or any alternative preparationwork due to the Christian holiday.
Snoopy to SciFi: Offbeat Space Mission Posters Images: Spotting Spaceships From Earth Rare Twilight Shuttle Launch on Monday Visible to U.S. East Coastisproviding finish coverage of Discoverys STS131 mission to the InternationalSpace Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik inCape Canaveral, Fla., and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitzbased in New York. Click here for shuttlemission updates and a couple to NASA TV.
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