Category: sts-120

I was to Orlando’ attractions today, so I think I just quote NASA’s shuttle home page for now:

At the STS-120 Launch Readiness News Conference Sunday morning, LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager, pointed to the weather as the only question mark for the launch week ahead. He reported all is “ready to move forward to launch on Tuesday.”

Weather officer Kathy Winters called Tuesday’s weather “promising” at 60 percent favorable. She explained that they continue tracking a frontal boundary that may now arrive on Wednesday, earlier than previously predicted. The front should be out in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, but the timing of the front’s arrival could cause problems for a Wednesday launch attempt should Tuesday’s launch not occur. Weather should improve once the front passes through the area. There is still only a 10 percent chance that weather could prohibit tanking for Tuesday’s liftoff.

That’s excellent news. The weather, however, seems to be a problem. Again, we had rain over here in Orlando and so it looks like viewing the launch becomes a betting game. We’ll see.

I’ll drive over to Titusville tomorrow and try to catch Kennedy Space Center’s “up close” tour. I hope the weather is well enough so that we can really see something.

As scheduled, the countdown for STS-120 started today at 2pm EDT in Kennedy Space Center. All systems are still go and it looks like we have an on-time launch — weather permitting.

I visited Seaworld Orlando today and have booked a trip to Discovery Cove tomorrow. So I am currently not following STS-120 in depth. That’ll change Monday, when I drive over to Kennedy Space Center.

Today, we had big clouds over Orlando. I hope the weather in Kennedy Space Center will be better on launch day. Else we probably have a scrub. Anyhow, let’s see how it evolves…

Just a quick note: we arrived well yesterday and are currently staying in the Orlando Residence Inn. We just got up (struggeling with the jet lag) and will have breakfast. More news probably this evening.

If I had boarded a space shuttle, I would already been in orbit for quite a while. But, nah, I am sitting in a good ole Boing 767 on my way to Florida. And I try to be a little less bored by hammering my poor pda keyboard (no, the laptop is with my son for movie viewing).

The plane doesn't offer Internet service, so this post will probably take a while to actually show up on the blog. I need a wlan hotspot (free, of course) to send the post mail. Good that I have my own hotspot with me. If I write more posts, they may show up mixed up and not in order of creation – so don't wonder too much.

The really cool thing is that I got a different plane very quickly – we started just one hour delayed. Nd what is even cooler is that the pilot will fly faster (probably to save theschedule) and we so we actually should arrive at the originally scheduled time.

In essence, I have just exchanged one hour of flight time for one hour of being able to roam at he airport – not a bad thing ;)

If all issues during my trip can be as simply fixed as this plane problem, I'll probably have a great time.

Well, enough for now… another 7+ hours of flight time ahead of me …

I am right now sitting at Frankfurt airport and, guess what: the gangway was just rolled back from the plane. We were told that an engine problem was discovered during system checks… Lol – isn't that a good start for a shuttle launch viewing trip? ;) The delay, we were promised, will only be short (but do I trust that?). We'll see…

Now back to blogging silence.

Well, not a real launch… My plane will “launch” tomorrow (Friday) from Germany to Orlando, Florida. Not within a few minutes, but a more than 10 hour flight. But, hey, isn’t a shuttle launch worth that? ;)

This is probably my last post for the next day or so. When I arrive in Orlando, it will be late in the evening and I’ll head to the hotel to have a good night’s sleep. The next morning, me and my family will get a bit acquainted to Orlando’s attractions. I do not know how long it will take me to get my notebook and everything else back online … and how long it will take to get some time off for blogging from my family. So please bear with me if it will take a little while before there are new entries here in the blog. I promise I’ll keep you informed.

And please keep your fingers crossed for me that everything goes well on my trip ;)

Do you remember my question about which (size of) bags is allowed into Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on launch day? I received a number ofa encouraging nswers from fellow space launch viewers. And a few minutes ago, official word from KSC arrived:

Those bags will be just fine and security will check them and the contents when you come in.

A quick, efficient and very satisfying answer. I am happy to got it (especially as I already put the bags into my luggage for tomorrow’s flight ;)).