Thunderstorms and lightning strikes lead to fourth Endeavour delay (Update)

by Stevie Smith - Jul 13 2009, 22:56

Update: At 18:40 EDT on Monday, NASA once again scrubbed the launch. The launch director, when making his call to pull the mission, said the teams were present and ready, but the weather would not cooperate.

"Liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission has been scrubbed once more due to weather within the launch area at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Anvil clouds and storm cells containing lightning flared up toward the end of the countdown, violating stringent launch safety rules," NASA said in its official announcement.

Monday's launch was overshadowed with a 60 percent chance of a no-go for launch. Tuesday has the same odds, while Wednesday has a 40 percent chance of failure, NASA outlined.

Wednesday's improved odds are what led launch director Pete Nickolenko to call for a 48-hour hold on any other launch attempts. As of now, Wednesday’s attempt is set for a launch time of 18:03 EDT with a five minute window.

Original Article: Living up to its name, NASA space shuttle Endeavour will have to do just that after its scheduled weekend blastoff was delayed following a heavy thunderstorm that resulted in savage lightning strikes on and around the launch tower.

Taking Endeavour’s tally of delays to four, Sunday’s mission to transport materials to the orbiting International Space Station was again postponed as poor weather closed in from the west with only a matter of minutes left on the official launch clock.

“We got the vehicle ready, and the weather unfortunately did not cooperate with us today,” NASA launch director Pete Nickolenko told the Endeavour’s seven crew members in announcing the latest postponement.

NASA’s window of opportunity is now shrinking rapidly as a result of the repeated delays, with Tuesday or Wednesday of this week likely representing its final attempt to get Endeavour off the ground during July.

If the weather or another technical glitch once again interferes with scheduling then NASA will have little choice but to wait until August with a Russian Soyuz supply rocket waiting to launch in its own assigned slot for July.

Once it finally blasts clear of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Endeavour’s two-week mission will see it tasked with transporting the final piece of Japan’s Kibo space laboratory to the International Space Station. The crew will work to install the important exterior experiment platform during a total of five proposed spacewalks.

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