Cape Canaveral (US): NASA gave the go-ahead today for the launch of shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station, after a series of delays brought on by bad weather and equipment problems.
With 70 per cent favorable weather conditions, technicians at Florida`s Kennedy Space Center began pumping liquid hydrogen into the shuttle`s orange external fuel tanks
ahead of the launch now set for 2434 IST, the US space agency said.
"The team is not working any issue right now preventing a launch on time," space center spokesman Allard Beutel told reporters.
Heavy rain had scrubbed yesterday`s launch of Discovery, after glitches that postponed the launch three times earlier in the week were resolved.
Discovery`s 11-day mission with its all-American crew of six will deliver a pressurized logistics module called Leonardo, which will be permanently attached to the space
station to provide more storage space.
The shuttle will also bring Robonaut 2, the first human-like robot in space and a permanent addition to the orbiting space station, as well as spare parts.
Two space walks, for maintenance work and component installation, are scheduled.
The flight to the ISS is the fourth and final shuttle flight of the year, and the last scheduled for Discovery, the oldest in the three-shuttle fleet that is being retired in
2011.
Bureau Report
