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CNN Live Today

Winds Threaten to Delay Space Shuttle Launch

Aired April 08, 2002 - 12:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Florida at this hour, NASA is keeping an eye on the weather. Stiff winds are threatening to delay today's scheduled launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. CNN's John Zarrella is at the Kennedy Space Center with more. Hi, John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. You know, I think I have covered over the years about 50, maybe 60, of these space shuttle launches. I think I can count on one hand the number of times when the weather was not a problem here at the Kennedy Space Center or at least iffy, and that is, of course, again the story today out at launchpad 39, being the weather.

Winds are gusting at about 30 knots, which is just inside the limits of acceptable wind speed for a shuttle launch. Over at the emergency landing strip, the winds there too are gusting right at the margins or perhaps a little bit out of the margins right now, and cloud cover blowing in and out on these strong, gusty winds. So it is an issue.

Now last Thursday, the launch was delayed, was scrubbed about an hour and a half after they began fueling the giant external tank. And it was scrubbed when, on the launch platform, as you can see there, hydrogen gas began leaking from a vent pipe out there. It was not on the shuttle itself, but on the launchpad itself, not on the shuttle. And they went and scrubbed because of concerns for that, obviously.

They have spent the weekend repairing that, putting a clam shell- like device over it, and then resealing it, testing it. They say that is all fine and dandy. The workers got that work completed, rushing it through so they could make this launch attempt. But of course now, the weather is a problem.

If and when they get Atlantis off the ground, the seven-member crew will be heading for the international space station rendezvous there, with Space Station Alpha, a very, very ambitious mission schedule, four space walks. You can see there on that NASA animation, what they are doing is lifting out of the cargo bay what's called the s0 truss, a 43-foot device, a girder-like device, which will be attached during those four space walks to the Destiny module. And, ultimately, they are going to put nine of those end-to-end and then on the ends of that, they will attach some solar panels and cooling devices, everything that they will need in order to support future laboratories, European and Japanese laboratories that will ultimately go up and that girder-like device will have the solar panels to heating and the electricity.

And so, it is a very, very ambitious mission going up. There are lots of electrical cables to connect. But, of course, they have got to get off the ground first to do it. And as you can see, Kyra, it is blustery here today at the Kennedy Space Center -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: No fun. Stay planted right there. OK, John, you know I always ask Miles O'Brien this every time he does a space segment, but I am going to throw it at you too. Tell me more about this and what it means for me. Sometimes, I have a hard time understanding all these technical terms.

ZARRELLA: What the mission means to us, what NASA and the space shuttle means to us. Well, what, of course, it mean to everybody up here is that we're pressing outward. Now, Jerry Ross, he is going up for the eighth time. He is a granddad. So, you know the movie "Space Cowboys"? And with Ross going up for a seventh time, if he goes up again, the eighth, this will be his record. He says he wants to do an eighth time.

But Ross said if we don't continue to press onward, if, for example, he holds the record and the record isn't broken, then we are not challenging ourselves, not challenging our technological abilities, not challenging all of the things that has made America great. And so, you know, one of the reasons why there is so much security here at the Kennedy Space Center now is because the shuttle such a symbol of America's strength and greatness. And so, there's a tremendous amount of security because of that very fact.

So I guess the long and the short answer, Kyra, is that it does continue to grow us as a nation, our ability to press outward and onward, and a lot of the things we hear about that are derived from the space program over the years, that have been products that we now take for granted here on earth. So, it certainly does provide us with ample opportunity to display what is all about America and the greatness that we are.

PHILLIPS: It definitely is a patriotic project and "Space Cowboys", I understood that. That was quite a hoot, that movie, wasn't it? All right, our John Zarrella live from Kennedy Space Center. Thanks so much.

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