This is Shuttle Launch Control at T-3 hours and holding. We're in a planned, three-hour built-in hold, with two hours, 18 minutes, 45 seconds remaining.
We're at Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center where, at Launch Pad 39B, Space Shuttle Atlantis awaits launch once again this morning.
We're now in the final six hours of the countdown activities for the launch of mission STS-115, the first mission
since Return to Flight to resume construction of the International Space Station.
The countdown is being controlled from Firing Room 4 at the Launch Control Center, and we are currently on schedule for a launch at 11:15 this morning.
STS-115 will be an 11-day mission. This is the hydrogen flare stack at the launch pad, venting the excess hydrogen away from the launch pad.
Hydrogen always has a need to escape, expand and escape, and much like an oil refinery does, it burns off excess through a stack which is out away from
the pad. And with the atmospheric conditions this morning, we have a rather colorful shot of the hydrogen flare stack burning off the excess.
And in the background, we can see the gaseous oxygen vent arm, venting the gaseous oxygen away from the space shuttle external tank.
Landing of STS-115, should it occur on time today, will be on Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 5:57 a.m. It's a early Wednesday morning landing, pre-dawn.
This is the 116th launch of the Space Shuttle Program, the 27th launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis and the 19th flight to the International Space Station.
Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters is about to brief Mike Leinbach on today's weather.
The countdown this morning is going very well. The tanking started at 1:15 this morning and was finished at 4:16 a.m. The final inspection team and a
close-out crew then entered the launch pad about 10 minutes later, and are now working themselves down the fixed service structure, doing their ice
inspections while the final closeout, or the closeout crew, is preparing the White Room for the arrival of the astronauts. And also, the astronaut support
person, Michael Good, is inside the crew compartment, configuring the cockpit and the middeck area for the astronauts. He's just recently been
conducting some preliminary communications checks on the air-to-ground voice loops with Orbiter Test Conductor Roberta Wyrick.
The news of interest this morning is that eco-sensor No. 3 is working. It did not fail during tanking this morning. It currently is in the "on" configuration
and right now is in a "go" condition for launch. Also, the fuel cell that we've been watching as configured for launch today is also performing just fine.
And Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters is reporting just a 20-percent chance of weather violation at launch time today at 11:15. We see some
showers offshore as yesterday, moving away from the Cape. Right now, they're in the 40- to 50-mile range, moving toward the east.
So at this time, the astronauts are awake and preparing for breakfast. And the launch team here in Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center has been
on station since midnight. The mission management team met about 12:30 to give the "go" for tanking this morning which, as we said, began on schedule
at 1:15 this morning. With two hours, 13 minutes, 22 seconds remaining in this planned three-hour built-in hold, we're at T-3 hours and holding.
This is Shuttle Launch Control.