WEBVTT

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BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Good morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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This is Space Shuttle Discovery's Launch Control. The countdown for launch

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of the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121 is continuing on schedule today.

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Launch is scheduled to occur at about 3:26 p.m. Eastern time this afternoon, and our

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launch opportunity window extends for about five minutes. Coming up in about an hour,

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the astronauts will receive a final weather briefing from the ascent team of flight

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controllers at Johnson Space Center. This is done by telecon. And then they will

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depart at about 11:36 for their entry into the vehicle.

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Our weather situation this morning is still fairly dynamic, as we anticipated it would be.

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Currently, our weather forecasters are indicating that we are red on a number of accounts,

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in particular for lightning and for thick clouds, as well as the anvil cloud rule, have been violated.

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We also have a potential for lightning in the area of the Vehicle Assembly Building,

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which is about four miles from the launch pad. The basic situation is that we have

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a high-pressure ridge located to the north of us causing easterly flow across Central Florida,

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and also an easterly wave is over Florida. This wave will bring coastal

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showers and associated thunderstorms into the east coast of Florida and the

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Kennedy Space Center.

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The upper level winds from the west will cause anvils to break away from the active

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thunderstorms from the inland and drift back over Kennedy Space Center on the coast.

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So our primary concerns for launch are for showers, cumulus clouds, the

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anvil clouds from the inland thunderstorms.

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The earlier prediction for violation this morning was 70 percent, however we are moving

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out of the percentage, of the percentage predictions as we are moving into the final

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phases of the count, and it's simply a go or no-go, or a red or a green. And we have

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a number of various criteria that have to be green for us to proceed to launch.

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Right now, we have a number of those criteria that are in the red state, including

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the potential for lightning, the, and thick clouds

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So we'll continue to monitor our weather this morning and this afternoon as we move

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into our launch, our launch window, which opens at 3:26 p.m. Eastern. Again,

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otherwise, no technical issues are being discussed, and we'll be coming up with

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watching our crew, suited for their final meal before they put on their suits and

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walk out to the launch pad. That should be coming up here in just a few minutes.

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At T-3 hours and holding, this is Shuttle Launch Control.

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