Return to Flight - Countdown

At  6:00 p.m. EDT Sunday, NASA began counting the days, minutes and seconds remaining before Discovery’s STS-114 mission is expected to launch. The Shuttle is currently scheduled to liftoff on Wednesday, July 13 at 3:51 p.m. EDT  from Launch Pad 39B  at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center  in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The crew of STS-114 arrived at Kennedy aboard a NASA Gulfstream II jet at 6:30 p.m. EDT Saturday. The astronauts flew in from Houston a day early to avoid treacherous travel conditions caused by Hurricane Dennis. As of 9:00 p.m. EDT Sunday, NASA said that the weather fore cast gave an 80% chance of launching on schedule.

At left, is a new sign on the road to the launch pad and at right, Discovery is in High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building, (VAB) being mated to the Solid Rocket Boosters, (SRBs) and the External Tank (in orange) This remarkable structure is worth some attention.

Originally constructed for assembly of the Apollo/Saturn vehicles, the VAB was later modified for the Shuttle program.

High Bays 1 and 3 are used for integration and stacking of the complete Space Shuttle vehicle. High Bay 2 is used for external tank (ET) checkout and storage and as a contingency storage area for orbiters. High Bay 4 is also used for ET checkout and storage, as well as for payload canister operations and solid rocket boster (SRB) contingency handling. The Low Bay area contains Space Shuttle main engine maintenance and overhaul shops, and serves as a holding area for SRB forward assemblies and aft skirts.

Next to the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, the VAB encloses more space than any other building. It contains 129 million ft³, compared to 77 million ft³ for the Pentagon and 3 million  ft³ for the Great Pyramid. The building is 525 ft. tall by 716 ft. long by 518 ft. wide and covers 8 acres. The Washington Monument (lamely PShopped) is 30' taller and is to scale. The flag, painted for the 1976 Bicentennial, is 209 x 110 feet, and is the largest painted flag in the world and required 6,000 gallons of paint. The four High Bay doors are the tallest ever built at 456 ft. high.

All images courtesy of NASA/KSC