Space Shuttle Discovery a Go for Tuesday Launch

FLORIDA - At the STS-120 Launch Readiness News Conference Sunday morning, LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager, pointed to the weather as the only question mark for the launch week ahead. He reported all is "ready to move forward to launch on Tuesday."

Weather officer Kathy Winters called Tuesday's weather "promising" at 60 percent favorable. She explained that they continue tracking a frontal boundary that may now arrive on Wednesday, earlier than previously predicted. The front should be out in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, but the timing of the front's arrival could cause problems for a Wednesday launch attempt should Tuesday's launch not occur. Weather should improve once the front passes through the area. There is still only a 10 percent chance that weather could prohibit tanking for Tuesday's liftoff.

Mike Leinbach, space shuttle launch director, said they are right on their timeline with no issues in work. He gave credit to the hard work of the processing teams preparing the shuttle for launch.

Discovery's crew of seven astronauts arrived in Florida on Friday and have been going through final checklists and preparations for Tuesday's liftoff.

Discovery is scheduled to return to Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility at 4:47 a.m. Nov. 6.

Mission Information

• STS-120 Mission Overview
• Harmony Node 2
• Space Shuttle Discovery

Media Resources

• Mission TV Schedule
• Press Kit (8.5 Mb PDF)
• Fact Sheet (2 Mb PDF)

Source: NASA

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