Rain Rain Go Away!
I showed up at the press centre at around noon, and almost as soon as I pulled up it started pouring. At its heaviest, the rain was so thick that you could just barely make out the fifty-story tall vehicle assembly building across the street. We found out at an evening press conference that Pad 39-B, where Atlantis is fueling up, was actually struck by lightning around that time. They’ve got ways (i.e. ¾” steel lighting rods) of deflecting the strike, and it looks like none of the shuttle’s systems were damaged.
So fortunately, launch is still scheduled for just under forty-eight hours away. At least tentatively: first Lieutenant Kaleb Nordgren of the Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron tells us that there’s a 40% rain will spoil the show on Sunday.
And there are bigger rain clouds hanging over the launch plans. A tropical storm is forming in the Gulf of Mexico, and it appears to be headed towards Houston, where mission control is based. If the storm were to turn into a full-blown hurricane, and Houston had to be evacuated, planers say that they would have to abandon the entire mission.
That’s a pretty big if, with the storm still so far out to sea (and pretty weak), but it didn’t stop us reporters from speculating wildly about it.