Launch postponted; watch party canceled

NASA will attempt to launch the space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-127 mission at 5:40 a.m. EDT Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to Tazewell County Museum and Educational Center President Christal Dagit.

As members of the NASA Museum Alliance, Dagit said the museum received word that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, would lift off together aboard an Atlas V rocket on Thursday. There are three launch opportunities from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: 5:12 p.m., 5:22 p.m. and 5:32 p.m.

“We canceled our Lunar Launch Watch at Kouri’s Pub, which was originally set for Wednesday, because NASA postponed the launch date,” Dagit said.

According to an e-mail from NASA News, NASA managers postponed Endeavour’s liftoff, originally set for last Saturday, due to a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad.

About the same time, the LRO and LCROSS launch was moved to Thursday to accommodate Endeavour’s Wednesday liftoff. According to information provided by NASA News, if Thursday’s liftoff of LRO and LCROSS is postponed 24 hours, the launch times Friday are 6:41 p.m., 6:51 p.m. and 7:01 p.m. Saturday’s opportunities are 8:08 p.m., 8:18 p.m. and 8:28 p.m.

Endeavour’s 16-day STS-127 mission to the International Space Station will include five spacewalks and the completion of construction of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

Dagit said LRO is scheduled for a one-year exploration mission at a polar orbit of about 31 miles, which is the closest any spacecraft has orbited the moon. The primary objective of LRO is to investigate the possibilities of future explorations on the moon.

“This is an important mission by NASA to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the moon. It is another step in man’s return to the moon,” Dagit said.

Live updates of the NASA News Twitter feed will be added throughout the shuttle mission and landing. To access the NASA News Twitter feed, visit daily-allnews.blogspot.com For the latest information about the STS-127 mission and its crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

To learn more about the LRO and LCROSS missions, go to the mission home pages at http://www.nasa.gov/LRO and www.nasa.gov LCROSS.

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