CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 12, 2009
NASA Scrubs Endeavour Launch Yet Again
Thunderstorms Move in Just Minutes Before Planned Launch; Officials Aim to Try Again Monday
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Space shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., July 12, 2009. (NASA TV)
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The crew of STS-127. Front: Commander Mark Polansky (right) and Pilot Doug Hurley. Back row (left to right): Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Canadian Space Agency's Julie Payette, Tom Marshburn and Tim Kopra. (NASA)
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Play CBS Video Video Lightning Strikes NASA Pad "CBS News RAW": A large lightning bolt struck the lightning mast on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA decided to delay The Space shuttle Endeavour's launch due to the lightning.
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Interactive Shuttle Era Follow the history of America's space shuttle program.
The launch team came within minutes of sending Endeavour and seven astronauts to the international space station. But storms quickly moved in from the west and violated NASA's safety rules, and managers halted the countdown. They will try again Monday, despite an outlook calling for more bad weather.
There were no leaks or technical problems of any significance during today's countdown and Endeavour's external tank was loaded with a half-million gallons of rocket fuel without incident, reports CBS News Space Analyst Bill Harwood.
Commander Mark Polansky and his crewmates began strapping in a few minutes before 4 p.m. EDT, hopeful about finally kicking off a 16-day space station assembly mission.
But as the afternoon wore on, storm cells began pushing in from the west and forecasters predicted thunderstorms or showers within 20 nautical miles of the shuttle's emergency runway, Harwood reports. NASA flight rules forbid a launch if forecasters predict rain near the runway a half hour after launch when the crew would have to attempt an emergency landing in the event of an engine failure early in flight.
Launch Director Pete Nickolenko called off the countdown at the T-minus nine-minute mark.
"Roman, we got the vehicle ready and the weather unfortunately did not cooperate with us today, we had some colliding sea breezes," Nickolenko radioed just after 7 p.m. "We're going to have to declare a scrub for today and try to bring the team back for another attempt tomorrow."
"We understand and we'll be ready," Polansky replied from Endeavour's flight deck.
NASA has until Tuesday, possibly Wednesday, to launch Endeavour with the final piece of Japan's space station lab. Otherwise, it will have to wait until the end of July because of a Russian supply ship that's awaiting liftoff.
The three previous countdowns never made it this far.
Saturday's launch attempt was foiled by a series of lightning strikes around the pad that required extra checks of the many critical shuttle systems. Back in June, hydrogen gas leaks held everything up.
Endeavour holds the third and final segment of Japan's enormous $1 billion space station lab, named Kibo, or Hope. It's a porch for experiments that need to be exposed to the vacuum of space. The shuttle also is loaded with large spare parts for the space station and hundreds of pounds of food for the six station residents.
When the shuttle astronauts finally arrive at the space station, they will make up the biggest crowd ever in a single place in orbit: 13 people.
All of the major space station partners will be represented: the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.
Endeavour will spend nearly two weeks at the space station. In all, the flight will last 16 days. Five spacewalks are planned to hook up the Japanese lab's new porch, replace space station batteries and perform other maintenance.
Eight shuttle flights remain, including this one, before NASA retires the fleet. All involve space station work.
For more info:
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 21 CommentsHe likes burgers, while Michelle prefers to eat an entire large pizza with double extra cheese.
Her man likes her skirts to fit EXTRA tight in the back...
Obama is thinking of renaming the presidential helicopter Rump Shaker 1.
I agree. The little weasel has had a big evening, insulting several posters, libeling them, lieing about them, saying they said such and
such, when they said nothing of the kind! Going out of his way to
pick a fight! Which means he's either one of these gutless right-wing
trolls OR he's working for CBSNews!
The fact that he's been allowed to do so, suggests he's CBSs'!
It was just scrapped again until tomorrow around 6 p.m.
They did? That's good because I meant to watch it and forgot about it!
Better luck next time.
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Then how come you forgot to bring it today?
Did you leave it in your toybox?
Maybe it got buried under your Strawberry Shortcake coloring book, so you couldn't find it.
I guess you can't really expect a person that doesn't have a brain to know whether another person has one or not.
And my coloring book isn't a Strawberry Shortcake one, it's a "Disney Fairies" one.
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Because that's the kind of decisive, quick-thinking genius he is. He knows how to put pressure on the right spot to get results.
I'm so glad to see we finally have intelligent leadership again.
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HOW many crews was that?
Wouldn't you think we'd learn after the FIRST one????
If there were two, there will be more....
Some things never change.
The Democrats make sure of it.
The thing should have been grounded years ago.
We don't need to be circling earth in a closet anyway.
Since they are going to the space station,they have to launch within a certain launch window to make sure the shuttle lifts off as the
space station is passing almost overhead,if they didnt do this the shuttle would never be able to reach the station.
a month of delays.....Ka Ching Ka Ching
WE fund it, and we deserve to know the truth!
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Wait, you mean actually TELL people about the anti-gravity drive and the secret base on Io that we use to communicate with the extraterrestrial civilizations in the other planetary systems?
I'm telling you, that base is in big trouble. That's where we got the idea for banking deregulation. They told us it worked great on their planet.
The Io base has SERIOUSLY fallen out of favor with Congress....
I just don't think the public is quite ready for that.
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See all 21 Comments