Weather a concern for US shuttle launch

Weather forecasts predicted a 60% chance that conditions would prohibit tomorrow’s US launch of Discovery, the first planned lift-off of a space shuttle in a year.

Storm clouds from inland thunderstorms appeared to be the chief obstacle, according to the report from Patrick Air Force Base.

The Cape Canaveral lift-off for the 12-day trip to the international space station is set for 3.49pmEDT (8.39pm Irish time) tomorrow.

If weather prohibits a launch tomorrow, Nasa most likely would try to launch Discovery on Sunday, take a break on Monday and then try again on Tuesday, said Pete Nicolenko, Nasa’s test director.

The launch would be just the second shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed seven astronauts, and the first since the lift-off of Discovery last July.

Discovery’s seven-member crew will test shuttle inspection and repair techniques, bring supplies and equipment to the international space station and deliver the European Space Agency's Thomas Reiter, a German, for a six-month stay aboard the orbiting outpost.

Astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum, a Briton, will make two spacewalks and possibly a third, which would add a day to the mission.