Leroy Cain, Launch Integration Manager said, "We had a good weather briefing, we are working no issues and the vehicle is in really good shape."

"The countdown is going extremely well, we are not tracking any problems," said Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "We will just deal with the weather and if we get the RSS back before the weather that's just fine or we'll just wait for it to pass." "We are not tracking any issues on the vehicle or the ground side to prevent us from tanking tomorrow."

Launch Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported that afternoon thunderstorms are expected today. "We are a little more concerned about launch day then we were yesterday.

It is a little more moist and so we are going to bump up our numbers from 10% to a 30% chance of KSC weather prohibiting launch." The forecast for a 24 to 48 hour period if the launch is delayed remains the same at a 30% chance of weather violation.

This afternoon at Launch Pad 39B, the rotating service structure will move away from the shuttle and Atlantis will stand ready for liftoff.

The countdown officially began at 8 a.m. Sunday, at the T-43 hour mark, which includes over 30 hours of built-in hold time prior to a targeted 12:29 p.m. launch on Wednesday. The launch time is the middle point in the launch window that extends for 10 minutes.

Related Links
Shuttle and Stations at NASA
Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com

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