Liftoff Set For Wednesday Evening

In Firing Room 4 of the launch control center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, the countdown clock began ticking backward on schedule for the launch of the shuttle Endeavour at 1836 EDT Wednesday.

NASA tells ANN all countdown preparations are proceeding as planned at Launch Pad 39-A to meet an on-time launch target.

In perhaps the best news so far, giving the agency's recent issues with weather... the forecast for launch day looks promising. Currently, there's only a 30% chance that isolated showers or anvil clouds could prevent launch... whether the shuttle launches on schedule, or is forced to wait until Thursday.

Meanwhile, NASA says the flight's seven astronauts are staying busy with final launch preparations.

On Sunday morning, Commander Scott Kelly and Pilot Charlie Hobaugh made several practice landings at the Shuttle Landing Facility in the shuttle training aircraft, a modified Gulfstream II jet that mimics the flying characteristics of a space shuttle orbiter.

Progress 26 Docks At ISS

The ISS Progress 26 (P26) arrived at the International Space Station right on schedule Sunday, attaching to the Pirs docking compartment at 1440 EDT.

The station crew members -- Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson -- had a busy day Sunday. Yurchikhin and Kotov monitored the approach of P26 carefully in case it would have been necessary to have manually docked the new cargo craft.

Friday morning, station crew members held a conference by radio with their future visitors of the Endeavour crew.

As ANN reported, Progress 26 launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was loaded with 5,111 pounds of food, fuel, air, water and supplies.

FMI: www.nasa.gov