Weather is "Go" for Monday Morning Shuttle Launch
Friday, April 2, 2010
By: Tom Parkinson

The countdown is underway at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of Monday's planned launch of the space shuttle Discovery. At a briefing Friday, NASA officials said there is an 80 percent chance for favorable weather Monday morning.

Discovery’s launch is scheduled for 6:21 Monday morning. The shuttle crew is preparing for a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle will be hauling nearly 7000 pounds of supplies and scientific equipment to the space station. NASA officials say that, with only 4 shuttle missions remaining, each mission has to pack as much cargo as possible.
Shuttle Weather manager Kathy Winters says only a slight chance for fog could delay the lift-off on Monday.
“If our winds stay from the east, that won’t occur. It’s only if a land breeze would set up and, if that happens to occur, that’s when we would have a concern for fog. And so, with that, we have a 20 percent chance of weather prohibiting a KSC launch.”
If the launch is scrubbed on Monday morning, NASA will try again on Tuesday. If it’s delayed until Wednesday, clouds are expected at the Cape lowering the launch probability to 60 percent.

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