Gentlemen, Start Your Engines...

Stardate 4283.0

Shuttle Countdown to Begin Saturday...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA engineers believe they have isolated the fuel gauge malfunction that scrubbed the shuttle Discovery's July 13 launch attempt, and with Tropical Storm Franklin headed north, the launch team is set to trigger the countdown Saturday for a Tuesday launch.

Discovery's crew will return midday from a brief respite in Houston while engineers fix the electrical grounding problem they now feel was the culprit.

The biggest concern now, is a tropical storm Franklin that has developed in the area. If it does stay off-shore, the countdown will begin as planned at noon on Saturday. The launch is scheduled for 8:39 am MST on tuesday. If the weather does go sour, NASA is sayign that they may extend the "launch window" that was set to end July 31st into August as opposed to the September time frame.

The launch timing is mainly dependant on the orbital position of the International Space Station and lighting conditions for lift-off and ascent. I wonder about the latter... We can fly planes in the dark using satellites and other optical work-arounds so there must be another reason... Perhaps the media :P