ANN REALTIME Update, 0010, 07.13.05: NASA has updated the status of today's STS-114 launch with the following report. Our hopes, prayers, hearts, dreams and spirits are with Eileen Collins, Steve Robinson, Jim Kelly, Andy Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, Charlie Camarda, and Soichi Noguchi. Have a great launch, a super mission, enjoy the heck out of the privilege of seeing Mother Terra from on-high, come home safe and tell us ALL about it.

Discovery (OV-103)

Mission: STS-114 - 17th ISS Flight (LF1)
Payload: Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
Location: Launch Pad 39B
Launch Date: July 13, 2005, 3:51 p.m. EDT Launch Pad: 39B
Crew: Collins, Kelly, Noguchi, Robinson, Thomas, Lawrence and Camarda Inclination/Orbit Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

The countdown to launch Discovery remains on schedule for Wednesday at 3:51 p.m. EDT.

Just one day prior to the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, closeouts and procedures are finalized for the liftoff of the Return to Flight mission, STS-114, to the International Space Station. The countdown clock is in a scheduled built-in hold at T-11 hours (Time Minus 11 hours) and was to have picked up at 11 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

At about 5 p.m., Tuesday, during routine closeouts at the launch pad, the cover of Discovery's window number seven, one of the overhead crew cabin windows, fell about 65 feet and hit a carrier panel on the left Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod, damaging several tiles. The tiles were on a single carrier panel, which fits over the area. A spare carrier panel was taken to the pad and used to replace the damaged panel. The replacement procedure took about an hour to complete.

This operation impacted the planned roll back of the Rotating Service Structure from 7 p.m. to about 8:30 p.m.

The launch on Wednesday will not be impacted as a result. The countdown is in a planned, built-in hold at the T-11 hour mark. No other issues are being tracked by the launch team.

Loading of the Power Reactant Storage Distribution system is complete. This is the operation where the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for the fuel cells is loaded on Discovery. The fuel cells provide power to the electrical systems while the Shuttle is in orbit. The byproduct is drinking water. Setup and checkouts of the Space Shuttle Main Engines have begun.

This morning, as early as 5:30 a.m. EDT, the External Tank will be filled with about 500,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. To fill the tank takes about three hours.

Today, the L-1 day weather forecast shows that the probability of weather prohibiting the launch of Discovery is 40 percent, with the probability of weather prohibiting tanking at only five percent. Temperature at launch time is forecast at 86 degrees and a relative humidity of 70 percent.

The STS-114 crew spent today in various briefings including an Astronaut Support Personnel ingress briefing. This morning, Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot Jim Kelly flew several landing approaches at the Shuttle Landing Facility in the Shuttle Training Aircraft.

The Solid Rocket Booster retrieval ships Liberty Star and Freedom Star departed from KSC at about 12:30 p.m. and are traveling to their location for launch, about 140 nautical miles downrange of the launch pad.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/returntoflight, www.nasa.gov