STS-127 Prelaunch Thread,July 11 7:39 PM EDT

[3488]

WOW they're pretty good Wayne.

Look's like there are no serious weather issues at the moment at The Cape. Looks like preparations are still going well even details of the culinary delights enjioyed by the STS 127 crew earlier today.

From Spaceflightnow. Justin Ray.

1831 GMT (2:31 p.m. EDT)
The inspection team hasn't reported any problems or concerns during their observations today.

1815 GMT (2:15 p.m. EDT)
The Final Inspection Team is performing its observations of Endeavour this afternoon.
The team is responsible for checking the shuttle and launch pad one last time prior to liftoff. The team is comprised of engineers and safety officials from NASA, United Space Alliance and tank-builder Lockheed Martin. At the conclusion of their two-hour tour-of-duty, the team will have walked up and down the entire fixed service structure and mobile launcher platform.

The team is on the lookout for any abnormal ice or frost build-up on the vehicle and integrity of the external tank foam insulation.

The team uses a portable infrared scanner that gathers temperature measurements on the surface area of the shuttle and can spot leaks. The scanner will be used to obtain temperature data on the external tank, solid rocket boosters, space shuttle orbiter, main engines and launch pad structures. The scanner can also spot leaks of the cryogenic propellants, and due to its ability to detect distinct temperature differences, can spot any dangerous hydrogen fuel that is burning. The team member also is responsible for photo documentation.

The team wears the highly visible day-glow orange coveralls that are anti-static and flame resistant. Each member also has a self-contained emergency breathing unit that holds about 10 minutes of air.

1740 GMT (1:40 p.m. EDT)
The crew had lunch at 12:55 p.m. EDT today. The menu included steak and lobster tails for commander Mark Polansky, steak and mashed potatoes for Chris Cassidy and Tim Kopra, lobster and salad for Tom Marshburn, and cheeseburgers for Doug Hurley, Julie Payette and Dave Wolf.
Out at the launch pad's White Room next to Endeavour's hatch, the Orbiter Closeout Crew is preparing for arrival of the astronauts shortly before 4 p.m. EDT. The team will help the seven astronauts get strapped into the spacecraft.

From Spaceflightnow. Justin Ray.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

From Spaceflightnow.com. Justin Ray.

A small chance that weather is going to scupper the launch. Otherwise all is going well.

2050 GMT (4:50 p.m. EDT)
A reminder that if you will be away from your computer but would like to receive countdown updates, sign up for our Twitter feed to get text messages on your cellphone. U.S. readers can also sign up from their phone by texting "follow spaceflightnow" to 40404. (Standard text messaging charges apply.)

2048 GMT (4:48 p.m. EDT)
T-minus 90 minutes and counting. Countdown clocks continue to tick down to T-minus 20 minutes where the next hold is planned. Activities remain on track for liftoff at 7:13 p.m.
The countdown is proceeding smoothly with no significant technical issues. The weather predictions still call for a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions. The only concern could be thunderstorms within 20 miles that would violate the weather rules.

From Spaceflightnow.com. Justin Ray.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Close out complete.

From Spaceflightnow.com. Justin Ray.

2118 GMT (5:18 p.m. EDT)
The orbiter closeout team at the launch pad is closing Endeavour's crew module hatch for flight.

2113 GMT (5:13 p.m. EDT)
Just two hours remain until the planned liftoff time.
The reusable solid rocket boosters, built by ATK, provide the primary thrust to propel the space shuttle away from Earth during the initial two minutes of flight. The 11 sections on each booster flying on Endeavour are a mixture of brand new and used hardware. The upper dome on the right-hand booster, for example, flew on STS-2 in 1981. In all, the twin boosters flying this morning have refurbished segments and pieces that trace back to 65 previous shuttle launches.

The boosters will parachute into the Atlantic Ocean where a pair of retrieval ships are standing by to recover the rockets and tow them back to shore, beginning again the process to disassemble, refurbish and reuse the hardware in the future.

2110 GMT (5:10 p.m. EDT)
The final report from the inspection team's walkdown of the launch pad this afternoon had only one item of interest, NASA says. On the liquid hydrogen-side umbilical that connects to the side of Endeavour's aft compartment, there's what is being termed by the engineers as slushy ice on the aft seal edge. Officials are discussing the observation.
Also, one of the orbiter's thruster covers is partially debonded. But that is not a constraint to launch.

From Spaceflightnow.com. Justin Ray.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Revised launch time is 7:39:54 EDT (23:39:54 UT/GMT)

Less than 2 hours to launch time.

T-29:00 minutes.

Currently NoGo for weather, hopefully it will be good for launch.

 

[3488]

The Florida Summer weather is a real pain ain't it?

it delayed he LRO/LCROSS cross launch last month & now it looks like STS 127 will remain grounded due to it. Mind you there's enough time still for the thunderstorms to vacate the area.

Anyway if off to sleep now as I'm tired & not 100% well.

Hopefully Endeavour has launched by the time I return tomorrow.

Andrew Brown.

 

[newsartist]

Weather seems to be heading in a good direction, but it is Florida. Things can change in a heartbeat.

Radar from Tampa, (Melbourne is closer but is confused by ground clutter from being so close to the Cape.)

http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/radar.ph ... 11&loop=no

The numbers right from the Shuttle Landing Facility:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KTTS.html

There is an east wind, including some gusts. That would probably place the Heading Allignment Circle, (in the event of a RTLS Abort,) well west of the strip. More clear will be needed to the west than for a return from the east.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I'd have to disagree that Endeavour will be grounded. It's about 50/50 right now.

I assume you'll check in later if you wake up for a few minutes

 

[MeteorWayne]

The radar looks real bad. I'd say at best a 30% chance of launch today...

 

[robertwnielsen]

SCRUBBED! Just watching SPACE.com's NASA TV link...the storms aren't cooperating, and they've scrubbed the launch for today....gonna try again at 1846 EDT tomorrow.

RWN

 

[MeteorWayne]

Rats, a weather scrub. They are saying an attempt will be made tomorrow, though that does not fit the usual profile.

 

[bobble_bob]

Last chance tomorrow then before they step down for the Russian Progress launch?

 

[dragon04]

Bummer. I'd just tuned in to NASA TV to watch the fireworks. Tomorrow at 18:51 EDT is what they say.

 

[newsartist]

They quoted Weather Officer Kathy Winters as saying lightning had been detected within 10 nm of the pad.

 

[bobble_bob]

That ET has been drained and filled so many times now, it wont know whats going on

Isnt there a limit to the amount of times you can drain and refill it? Arent we up to about 5 times now

 

[dragon04]

That ET has been drained and filled so many times now, it wont know whats going on

Isnt there a limit to the amount of times you can drain and refill it? Arent we up to about 5 times now

One thing for sure. This verifies the fix on that leak.

 

[bobble_bob]

Good point :lol:

 

[MarkStanaway]

Does anyone know how many times they have drained and refilled one of these tanks during testing?

I would expect that there might be extra insulation shed because of the number of thermal cycles the ET has been subjected to.
I'm no technical expert but its just a thought.

 

[newsartist]

Does anyone know how many times they have drained and refilled one of these tanks during testing?

That thought came up in a long-ago thread. I don't remember what the allowable fill cycles were, and that thread is certainly history now.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Tanking is underway with launch scheduled for 6:51 PM EDT this evening.

See the bottom of page 5 of this thread for the visible satellite and radar weather links.

Weather outlook not too good; only a 40% change of go condistions at launch time.

 

[newsartist]

The astronauts have boarded the AstroVan, and are en route to the pad at T- 2:47.

There was sunshine as they boarded the van. This might not be good if it fires more convection before flight time.

 

[MeteorWayne]

One other fly in the ointment. Any rain at all could cause a scrub, even if the conditions are good at launch time.

One of the Tyvek covers has come loose over a RCS port. If any rain gets in there, they may have to scrub for fear it would freeze and make that Reaction Control Jet unavailable during the flight.

Hopefully, the sea brezze front will form to the west and move west.

 

[newsartist]

All crew members are aboard. Julie Payette, MS2 was the last to take her upstairs flight engineer seat.

 

[newsartist]

Steve Lindsey is up in a T-38. A small rain cell is moving right to the pad, but bigger stuff to the west is headed in too.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Radar's looking pretty good.. The TRW's seem to have split and left a gap between near the cape:



http://www.intellicast.com/national/nex ... imate=true

 

[MeteorWayne]

T- 20:00 and holding (planned 10 minute hold)

Interesting factoid, this crew will mark the 500th human in space.

I'm teaching a class to a bunch of 8th graders later tonight; when I was their age, ther had been 12 humans in space, 6 Americans, 6 Russians, 1 woman, all in lone capsules by themselves.

Weather may be going downhill.

Wayne