NASA Ready for Overnight Shuttle Launch

CAPE CANAVERAL — Mission managers prepared to wake up the crew and begin loading fuel into shuttle Endeavour as the countdown clock ticked toward an unusual, overnight launch of a crew commanded by Miami Palmetto High graduate Dominic Gorie.

Liftoff remains scheduled for 2:28 a.m. EDT Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Central Florida.

Forecasters predicted a 90 percent chance of favorable weather and no technical trouble was reported Monday aboard Endeavour.

Ground crews rolled back the launch pad’s rotating service structure, a key prelaunch step, and prepared to begin fueling the shuttle’s huge external tank. Mission managers cleared the seven astronauts for flight and were scheduled to wake them around 4 p.m.

"All of our systems are in great shape, our teams are ready to go," said Jeff Spaulding, a test director for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Though the shuttle’s trajectory will carry it away from South Florida, anyone outside at that painfully early hour and looking toward the north might be able to see the distant glow of the launch.

During the 16-day mission to the International Space Station, Gorie and his crew will conduct five spacewalks and deliver a Japanese laboratory and a Canadian robotic device to the orbiting laboratory.

A former Navy pilot and a veteran of three previous space flights, Gorie, 50, lived in South Florida from 1971 to 1976 and considers Miami his hometown.

Also aboard will be copilot Gregory Johnson, 45; mission specialists Robert Behnken, 37; Michael Foreman, 50; Richard Linnehan, 50; and Garrett Reisman, 40; and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, 53.

"For years, we have been calling it an International Space Station and now we are truly there," Gorie said.

"To see a flight like this, with the large components we are carrying coming from different countries and, once we get there, to see several different nationalities, makes it truly an international space flight," he said.

The post-midnight liftoff time is dictated by the current angle of the space station’s orbit — and the timing of this launch certainly requires special preparations.

So, how did the crew plan to handle the late night-early morning final countdown?

Said Reisman: "We’re going to all drink a lot of coffee before we go out there."