Weather Iffy for Sunday Night STS-130 Landing

NASA:

Weather permitting, Endeavour is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility at 10:20 p.m. EST. The STS-130 entry team led by Flight Director Norm Knight will be on console in Mission Control at 3:30 p.m. to prepare for deorbit and landing.

The latest Kennedy forecast calls for a chance of showers within 30 nautical miles of the shuttle landing facility and a cloud ceiling at 6,000 feet, both violations of landing rules. The forecast for Edwards Air Force Base in California also contains violations for showers within 30 nautical miles of the runway and cloud ceilings at 3,000 and 6,000 feet. The National Weather Service Spaceflight Meteorology Group at Johnson Space Center will provide Knight and his team with continuous updated forecasts and real-time observations to aid in a "go-no go" decision for the deorbit burn.

Prettiest Space Shuttle Launch Ever

STS-130 left town in the dead of night early Monday morning, in just about the most spectacular and truly beautiful shuttle launch every televised. If you can find the replays of this, look at them.

Launch related comms, mostly with the Booster Recovery Vessels, were heard on 5211, 9043, and 10780, all USB.

STS-130 Scrubs In Dead Of Night

As I found out upon awakening, the weather did prevent a launch of Endeavour on Sunday. Clouds. The next launch opportunity is at 4:14 AM Eastern Standard Time (0914 UTC) early Monday morning.

Decision time on tanking is 6:15 PM Eastern, with tanking to begin half an hour later if approved. The cloud cover remains iffy for a launch.

If it sounds as if there are a lot of weather criteria for launch, it's because there are. The list is huge. It covers not only the launch site, but the Eastern Test Range, the Booster Recovery Zones, the Shuttle Landing Facility (RTLS abort), and the TAL (Trans Atlantic Landing abort) sites. The list is here.

It takes a fair amount of luck before they're ever able to go at all.

STS-130 Weather Is Deteriorating

Major concern affecting a launch early Sunday morning is worsening weather, with wind and low clouds to the north of KSC. Weather is now forecast to have only a 30 per cent chance of allowing launch.

STS-130 Countdown Remains On Schedule

Endeavour is still scheduled to launch early Sunday morning, at 4:39 AM Eastern Standard Time (0939 UTC). This mission will add a large crew module called Tranquility. It has a turret-like cupola with a spectacular view of Earth.

The Rotating Service Structure was removed at 8:39 AM Eastern on Saturday. Tanking begins at 7 PM Eastern, and will be covered on NASA TV. Live commentary on NASA TV and the Launch Blog begins at 11:30 PM Eastern.

Weather shows only a 20 per cent chance of violating launch constraints.