Cape Canaveral: NASA officials crossed their fingers ahead of the second attempt to launch Endeavour to the International Space Station on one of the last missions for the soon-to-be-retired shuttle fleet.
The US space agency's Mission Management Team gave the go ahead early Sunday evening for teams to begin filling the shuttle's external fuel tanks with propellants as Endeavour's six-astronaut crew made their final preparations.
The shuttle was scheduled to launch at 4:14 am (0914 GMT) on Monday morning, after a first liftoff attempt early Sunday was scrapped because of bad weather at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The delay was caused by heavy cloud cover over Cape Canaveral, officials from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
"We tried really, really hard to work the weather, but it's just too dynamic," NASA's launch director Mike Leinbach said Sunday. "We are just not comfortable to launch the shuttle tonight. So, we have a 24-hour scrub."
Endeavour is set to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) as NASA begins to re-evaluate its future after President Barack Obama effectively abandoned the US space agency's plan to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
The Constellation program was intended to develop a successor spacecraft to the shuttle, which could be used to carry astronauts to the moon where they would use a lunar base to launch manned missions to Mars.
Constrained by soaring budget deficits, Obama submitted a budget to Congress that encourages the agency to instead focus on developing commercial transport alternatives to ferry astronauts to the ISS after the shuttle program ends.
There are just five missions scheduled for NASA's three shuttles before the program is scheduled to wind down later this year. The first shuttle launch was in 1981.
The Endeavour mission's main goal is the delivery of the Tranquillity module, also known as Node 3, which comes with a multi-window cupola attached.
With Endeavour's delivery of Tranquillity, the International Space Station will be 90-percent complete, NASA said.
Installing the module is expected to require a team of two astronauts to undertake three spacewalks lasting 6.5 hours each.
Tranquillity, named after the lunar sea where Apollo 11 landed, has the most sophisticated life support system ever flown into space, equipped with air revitalization, oxygen generation and water recycling systems.
The cupola attached to Tranquillity boasts six windows arrayed along its sides as well as a central window -- all built with protection against the impact of tiny meteorites -- that will offer an unprecedented panoramic view for those onboard.
PTI
First Published: Monday, February 08, 2010, 11:03