Postponed

GUCP Work Delayed by Rain to be Finished Today

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 01:04:50 PM UTC

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians plan to install reference dots on space shuttle Discovery's ground umbilical carrier plate, or GUCP, to monitor for movement during tanking. The work was expected to be completed yesterday, but was delayed by rain.

The shuttle's crew is practicing on-orbit tasks today in the motion base simulator at the astronauts' training base at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Discovery's launch is currently targeted for no earlier than Dec. 17, after shuttle managers determined more tests and analysis are needed.

The Program Requirements Control Board reviewed on Nov. 23 repairs and engineering evaluations associated with cracks on two 21-foot-long, U-shaped aluminum brackets, called stringers, on the shuttle's external tank. Managers decided the analysis and tests required to launch Discovery safely are not complete. The work will continue through this week.

The next status review by the PRCB will be Thursday, Dec. 2. If managers clear Discovery for launch on Dec. 17, the preferred time is about 8:51 p.m. EST.

(report from official NASA website)

In summary, the Ground umbilical carrier plate is being updated and further test are being taken, so launch has been postponed until december 17th at the earliest.

For more information, see http://spaceflightnow.com/

For the official NASA website, see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

For my main blog, see http://astrostevesblog.blogspot.com/

Mission Status Center

By Justin Ray

In preparation for the launch of STS 133, i've embedded a live feed from kennedy space centre (provided by spaceflightnow.com) to the bottom of this blog, which will go online in time to watch it launch from pad 39A in 3 days.

Significantly Postponed

Postponed until November 30th.


Today's liftoff of space shuttle Discovery has been postponed due to a "significant" leak in the gaseous hydrogen venting system between the launch pad and external fuel tank. This is the same problem that delayed a pair of shuttle missions last year. NASA says the next launch attempt won't be made until the next window opens on November 30 at 4:05 a.m. EST.

For more information, see http://spaceflightnow.com/

For the official NASA website, see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

For my main blog, see http://astrostevesblog.blogspot.com/

NASA.gov

Remember you can of course get all the details from NASA itself at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Here's a detailed description of the launch and ISS docking from the link above:
Friday's launch time is 3:04 p.m. EDT. There are no scheduled STS-133 news conferences on NASA Television today and no planned Space Shuttle Program Mission Management Team meetings today. The shuttle team will convene at 5 a.m. Friday to assess the weather before giving a “go" or "no-go” decision to fill Discovery’s external tank.

If Discovery launches Friday, it will dock with the International Space Station at 10:55 a.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 7. The mission’s two spacewalks will occur on Tuesday Nov. 9 and Thursday Nov. 11. Undocking will occur at 4:21 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, and landing at Kennedy Space Center will take place at 9:16 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Launch plan

1625 GMT (12:25 p.m. EDT)

Here's what the weather specialists predict for the next several days at the Kennedy Space Center and the odds of conditions being "go" for a shuttle launch each afternoon:

• Friday @ 3:04 p.m. EDT: 60 percent favorable, concerns for low-cloud ceilings and launch pad winds
  
• Saturday @ 2:41 p.m. EDT: 40 percent favorable, concern for launch pad winds
  
• Sunday @ 1:15 p.m. EST: 70 percent favorable, concerns for crosswinds at emergency KSC runway and launch pad winds
  
• Monday @ 12:52 p.m. EST: 90 percent favorable, slight concern for crosswinds

taken from http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/status.html

For more information, see http://spaceflightnow.com/

For my main blog, see http://astrostevesblog.blogspot.com/

Postponed

To analyse irregularities in a critical circuit yesterday (tuesday), launch of the STS 133 has been delayed to at least Thursday at 3:29 p.m. EDT (1929 GMT). Unfortunately, there's a 20% chance of acceptable weather conditions on thursday. 60% on friday and 40% on saturday (of acceptable weather), due to strong winds.

For more information, see http://spaceflightnow.com/

For my main blog, see http://astrostevesblog.blogspot.com/

Countdown

The helium and nitrogen leakage has been stopped and repaired. Countdown began last night (on sunday) and is still set for wednesday, 3:52 pm on launch pad 39A.