CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Space shuttle Discovery was fueled for liftoff on Thursday on its final mission to carry supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station.The space shuttle Discovery is prepared for launch as the Rotating Service Structure is rolled back at launch pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 23, 2011. (REUTERS/Joe Skipper)
As NASA finished loading the shuttle with 500,000 gallons (1.9 million litres) of supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, an unmanned European cargo ship docked at the space station at 10:59 a.m. (1559 GMT)
If the cargo ship, which is carrying supplies and equipment, had had trouble docking it could have delayed the shuttle Discovery's scheduled launch at 4:50 p.m. (2150 GMT)
"It's a machine so you never know until the final seconds on the clock if all the pieces of the machine are going to behave, but right now it feels good," launch director Mike Leinbach said during an interview on NASA Television.
The flight will be the last for Discovery, the first of three shuttles NASA plans to retire this year as it phases out its shuttle program.
NASA attempted to launch Discovery on Nov. 5, but was stymied by a leak in a hydrogen vent line. Later, an unrelated and far more serious problem surfaced with support beams inside the fuel tank.
Engineers eventually determined a combination of problems, including flawed materials, caused some of the beams to crack and devised a sort of metal bandage to reinforce the trouble spots.
read more @ the star:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/25/worldupdates/2011-02-25T014213Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-551343-4&sec=Worldupdates
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