Shuttle cleared for Monday launch
Nasa has approved a Monday morning launch attempt for the space shuttle Endeavour after reviewing all the repairs for an electrical problem that grounded the next-to-last flight two weeks ago.
The flight to the International Space Station will be led by commander Mark Kelly, the husband of US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded during a January shooting rampage in her Tucson, Arizona, constituency.
She was present for the first launch attempt and will be on hand for this one as well.
Mission management team chairman Mike Moses said yesterday he was confident the repairs took care of the electrical short and blown fuse that prevented a string of heaters from turning on during the first launch attempt on April 29.
A thermostat with an exposed wire was replaced, as was a switch box with a blown fuse.
"In our minds, we are good to go," Mr Moses said.
Forecasters put the odds of good weather at 70%. The main concerns are stiff crosswinds and low clouds.
"Looks like we r flying !!!" astronaut Mike Fincke said in a Twitter update last night.
Launch director Mike Leinbach said an estimated 500,000 spectators were expected to jam nearby roads in advance of tomorrow's scheduled 8.56am (1.56pm Irish time) launch.
That is more than the crowd for Discovery's final launch in February, but far short of what was anticipated for Endeavour's launch attempt on April 29.
US president Barack Obama and his family were among those who travelled to Florida's Kennedy Space Centre last month hoping to see a launch. He met the astronauts and visited Ms Giffords, but will not be there tomorrow.
However Mr Leinbach said the president may come for the last shuttle launch in July.
Shuttle commander Kelly and five other veteran spacemen assigned to the 16-day flight will deliver a £1.2bn (€850,762) particle physics detector - a project led by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist - as well as critical space station spare parts.
Atlantis will close out the 30-year space shuttle programme with the July flight.
