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Julie Payette's Journal

Kennedy Space Center –
July 10, 2009

Hi!

Here’s a photograph of Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, taken around 4:00 p.m. this afternoon, a bit more than 27 hours before the launch of STS-127. One can see the tip of the external tank above the pad service structure, as a thunderstorm develops behind. During the passage of this storm, my crew and I were just a few miles down the road, at a small cottage called the Beach House, saying goodbye to our spouses. This was a pretty massive storm and we watched it all from the house, as the dark cloud engulfed the pad. We were later told that lightning struck the “mast” (this long white tube at the top of the pad that serves as a gigantic lightning rod), but that none of Endeavour’s systems had been affected and that the countdown was proceeding as planned. Tonight, around midnight, NASA will rotate the service structure out of the way into its launch position. Fueling of the external tank will then begin tomorrow morning and the crew will get suited around 3:00 p.m. for a departure to the pad at 3:50 p.m.

Interestingly, despite a stormy afternoon, the sun prevailed everywhere during the first half of the day, as you can see from the above picture when my colleagues Tom Marshburn, Chris Cassidy and I went to the launch pad to conduct a final inspection of Endeavour’s crew cabins. It is almost impossible to predict what kind of weather we will have at 7:39 p.m. tomorrow evening, but everything else is ready to support a launch. Our spacecraft is in top shape, our ground teams at KSC are all in place working the countdown and Mission Control Center in Houston is already up and running. And as for us, the crew, we will be ready several hours ahead, snuggly strapped inside the Shuttle, with the hatch closed, waiting for liftoff. Hopefully, the next time I write to you, it will be from lower Earth orbit.

Go Endeavour Go!

Julie