Discovery Still Go To Light Up The Heavens

There has not been a night lift-off of a shuttle in the NASA fleet for the last four years. Tomorrow's launch of the shuttle Discovery, STS-116 on a 12 day-long mission to the ISS, the International Space Station, may do just that depending on the weather.  They also had a Tuesday test that saw a slight power surge which has caused some limited worry about an electrical glitch that could stop the long-arranged count-down schedule.

As of today NASA and the Miami Herald have reported that the two electrical anomalies have been straightened out and only the weather is in question.   The technical issues from the Tuesday test were "a brief power surge that flared late Monday in a main electrical circuit and a modest concern about the integrity of adhesive used in the shuttle's solid rocket boosters."

The weather has been deteriorating but variable with lift-off chances lowered to 40% and then raised to 60%.  The STS-116 mission has a six person crew and is commanded, Mark Polansky. One astronaut is a replacement crew-member for the International Space Station. The crew is to work on re-wiring the station.

The Miami Herald reported from NASA's briefings that launch is scheduled for 9:36 PM on 7 December 2006 (2:36 GMT, Friday). At 7PM on Wednesday the weather forecast is calling for a 60% chance that the mission will be permitted its departure. You can use NASA to access a weather "podcast" as well as the NASA site to watch their Launch Blog which will begin live broadcasts at 3:30 PM tomorrow, Thursday.

The photograph (from the earlier STS-86, also night shuttle launch - ©NASA) The STS-116 mission is said to be one of the most complex of the program.  The visual possibilities of a night take-off are also verging on the astounding and worth watching if, indeed STS-116 does indeed ignite its fiery tail and fly.

Article Author: Howard Dratch

Howard writes on science, books, movies and news for Blogcritics and on his own blogs from the border of North and Central America.

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