NASA Hoping Weather Finally Cooperates for its Sixth Launch Attempt For Space Shuttle Endeavour

If the weather forecast holds, the space shuttle will launch at 6:03 pm EDT. NASA said that the 60% chance is an improvement over the previous two launch attempts. Tries on Sunday and Monday both failedwhen bad weather approached the launch area.

Photo: NASA Hoping Weather Finally Cooperates for its Sixth Launch Attempt For Space Shuttle Endeavour

NASA Hoping Weather Finally Cooperates for its Sixth Launch Attempt For Space Shuttle Endeavour

The Mission Management Team will meet Wednesday at 8 am to approve the fueling of Endeavour's external fuel tank. If the managers give the launch a go, fueling operations will begin at 8:30 am, NASA said.
Endeavour's 16-day STS-127 mission to the International Space Station will feature five spacewalks and allow astronauts to complete the construction of Japan's Kibo laboratory. Endeavour crew members are expected to assist with the installation of a platform outside the Japanese module that will facilitate the safe exposure of experiments in space, TG Daily reports.

The tally may seem high, but it is not the record for the most vexed shuttle flight.

That title belongs to two NASA missions, the STS-73 flight in 1995 and the STS-61C in 1986, both aboard the shuttle Columbia.

Those missions each endured six scrubbed launch attempts and lifted off on the seventh try, according to space history and artifacts expert Robert Pearlman, who founded the Web site collect space.com and is a space.com partner.

If NASA can successfully blast off Endeavour on Wednesday evening, its sixth time will be a charm.

The shuttle would have to miss two more launch attempts and lift off on the eighth try to take the title for most scrubbed mission, FoxNews reports

Meanwhile, NASA is hoping the weather finally cooperates for its sixth launch attempt for space shuttle Endeavour.

Endeavour is poised to take off for the international space station early Wednesday evening, along with seven astronauts. Forecasters put the odds of good weather at 60 percent.

Thunderstorms have delayed the mission three times and hydrogen gas leaks have caused two delays. Endeavour holds the final piece of Japan's space lab, which should have flown last month.

NASA must launch Endeavour by Wednesday — possibly Thursday if managers agree to shorten the flight. Otherwise, the shuttle will have to step aside for a Russian supply run to the space station. That would bump the shuttle launch to July 26, The Associated Press reports.