Space Shuttle Discovery Launch Scheduled For Tonight

Mission number 123 of the Space Shuttle program is scheduled to lift-off tonight at 9:20:14 pm EDT from Launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Space Shuttle – NASA

Commander Lee Archambault will lead Discovery’s crew of seven, along with Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata on mission STS-119 to the International Space Station.

The Discovery crew members are set to fly the S6 truss segment and install the final set of power-generating solar arrays to the International Space Station. The S6 truss will complete the backbone of the station and provide one-fourth of the total power needed to support a crew of six.

Once the solar arrays are installed, the International Space Station will be the third brightest object in the night sky, the Moon and Venus being first and second, respectively.

If the sky is clear, folks on the East coast should be able to see Discovery rising from the Earth shortly after launch.

Since 1981, 123 missions been initiated with only two tragedies; the launch failure of Challenger in 1986 and the re-entry failure of Columbia in 2003. It seems that Shuttle launches have become so routine that many folks may not even be aware of them.  Times have certainly changed since the Soviet’s launch of Sputnik in 1957.

(Additional Source: Universe Today)

Update: Tonight’s launch has been scrubbed due to a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the external fuel tank. The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad.

Next earliest launch is scheduled for Sunday at 7:43 pm EDT.

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