STS-127 Remains Grounded

Today was the fourth attempt to launch NASA's STS-127 shuttle mission to the space station. This mission has been having a hard time getting off the ground. Here's the timeline for the first three attempts:

June 13: Hydrogen leak
June 17: Hydrogen leak
July 11: Delayed 24 hours to check for lightning damage

This morning, the weather was fantastic. I started watching NASA TV and things were looking good. Around noon, they successfully began adding hydrogen fuel to the fuel tank. Around 2:00, we hit the road for Titusville with NASA giving a 70% chance for go based on the current weather predictions.

We arrived at Sand Point Park around 3:15 and scoped out a new possible viewing location. It was in the opposite direction from Space View Park and the view seemed just as nice, but with much fewer people. At 3:30, we walked back to the park to wait for the Aunt Cathy, Uncle Dave, and Nikki to arrive (that's the C&D of the famous C&D B&B). As we crossed the field, we saw them standing next to their car, looking for us in the wrong direction. I waved frantically and Andrew ran across the field to meet them. We found a nice covered picnic table, pulled out the buns, lunch meat, salads, and chips, and had ourselves a nice meal.

After dinner, we walked to our new viewing location and set up base.


Nikki, Uncle Dave, Aunt Cathy, Andrew, and Susan

While sitting and chatting, trying to successfully widdle the 2 hour wait away, we got a nice surprise. A manatee casually swam by less than 10 feet of shore in front of us. At first, I thought it was an old log or rusty barrel. But then it stuck its big nose out of the water and proved to us that it was indeed a manatee.

As the time passed, we noticed some building weather to the west. Aunt Cathy tried to be the ultimate optimist and was convinced it would come to nothing. I - being a realist - was thinking about heading for the car to grab the umbrella, but I was pretty sure the shuttle would not be delayed by what I saw. Unfortunately, we were wrong and NASA scrubbed the mission while waiting in the scheduled T-9 minute hold, just after 7:00. Here' a stitched shot of the skies around 7:00.

The storm moves toward Kennedy Space Center

The next launch is scheduled for tomorrow (July 13) at 6:51PM. Susan needs to work until 6:00PM, so we will likely drive up to Melbourne Beach and watch from afar.