Space Shuttle Status Report 2 October 2000

MISSION: STS-92 – 5th ISS Flight (3A) – Z1 Truss, PMA-3

LOCATION: Launch Pad 39A

TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: Oct. 5, 2000 at about 9:38 p.m. EDT

TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: Oct. 16, 2000 at about 4:50 p.m.

LAUNCH WINDOW: 2 * – 5 minutes

MISSION DURATION: 11 days

CREW: Duffy, Melroy, Wakata, Chiao, Wisoff, Lopez-Alegria, McArthur

ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 177 nautical miles/51.6 degrees

Shuttle Processing Note: The crew for mission STS-92 arrived
at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility last night at about 7 p.m., and the
countdown for launch remains slated to begin at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday at the
T-43 hour mark.

At the pad, preparations for launch of Space Shuttle
Discovery continue on schedule. Aft compartment closeouts were completed
Saturday and airlock closeouts are now in work. The payload bay doors are
open today for the crew to conduct a final inspection of the payloads now in
the orbiter’s payload bay. Also, flight crew equipment early stow will
conclude tonight. Loading of the onboard cryogenic reactants is scheduled to
commence Tuesday evening at about 8 p.m.

The weather forecast for Thursday’s launch attempt indicates
some uncertainty in regards to the movement of Hurricane Keith into the Gulf
of Mexico. Heavy rainfall and cloudiness is expected to be north of Cape
Canaveral by Thursday evening. As a result, the primary concern for
Thursday’s launch attempt will be showers and clouds associated with
Hurricane Keith. Forecasters are indicating a 40 percent chance of weather
prohibiting launch Thursday. The 24-hours scrub turnaround forecast is also
40 percent.