Crew practices launch countdown in space shuttle

The Discovery space shuttle's crew put on their bright orange spacesuits and were strapped into the craft for a practice countdown on the launch pad Thursday.

Photo: Crew practices launch countdown in space shuttle

The mock countdown was not only a rehearsal for the seven astronauts' expected launch in July, but also a dry run for the flight controllers in the so-called firing room who will direct the liftoff.

Discovery's launch will be the first shuttle flight in almost a year and only the second one since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

A minor glitch held the clock at a minute and 57 seconds before the three-hour countdown resumed.

"We had a good test, a firing room full of console operators, getting familiar with their activities and launch-day events," said NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham. "With the crew at the pad, it was a very successful test."

The mock countdown was stopped with four seconds left on the clock and the crew practiced an evacuation from the shuttle, climbing out of the vehicle with darkened visors on their helmets.

Placing a hand on the shoulder of the crew mate immediately in front, the astronauts scurried to an emergency wire basket about 50 feet (15 meters) away. In a genuine emergency, the basket would slide down a rope to the ground like a ski-lift, ferrying the astronauts to safety.

"To get in the vehicle while it's vertical, to get a feel for what the vehicle is like ... To get a chance to egress out of there and see how it feels, it's really invaluable training for us," commander Steve Lindsey said Wednesday during a news conference at the launch pad.

The astronauts planned to return to Houston on Friday, after four days of launch dress rehearsals, just as NASA administrator Michael Griffin and scores of top managers were to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center for two days of briefings on the shuttle.

The meeting was expected to culminate Saturday with a final decision on whether the shuttle was safe to fly and a target launch date. The launch window is between July 1 and July 19.

"I've been telling the crew, I'm guaranteeing July 1," Lindsey said. "As I get told at home, I'm quite often wrong," reports AP.

O.Ch.