Possible Scrub on Shuttle Launch for Second Day
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: I tell you what, it feels a little bit like the movie "Groundhog Day." Yes, this morning, down at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, we are still watching, still waiting. NASA is counting down for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery, but, well, the weather may get in the way just like it did yesterday. As you can see from this live picture looking awfully cloudy out there.</s>TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Cloudy, hazy.</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. It is Sunday, July 2nd, 9:00 a.m. at the launch site and here at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Tony Harris.</s>NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. We are standing by for this launch.</s>HARRIS: Yes. It's all we can do.</s>NGUYEN: And you know what? Miles O'Brien, he's not off the hook either. He's going to be there until this thing gets off the ground. Hey there, Miles.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I am. Let's take the half-full way.</s>HARRIS: There you go. There you go.</s>NGUYEN: I like that.</s>O'BRIEN: There's a one in three chance there will be a launch today.</s>NGUYEN: That's half full, one in three chance?</s>O'BRIEN: We're going to check in with our...</s>NGUYEN: That's not half full.</s>O'BRIEN: Roughly 30 percent. It's a third full, all right? It's a third full. We're going to go with that. We'll check in with Eileen Collins, former commander, in just a moment, and see what the crew is going through now and what may lied ahead. Back to you guys.</s>NGUYEN: Always on the bright side, that Miles O'Brien. Thank you, Miles. Well, Israel ratchets up the pressure this morning. "Now in the News," Israeli aircraft blasted the Palestinian prime minister's office in Gaza this morning. A bystander was injured. It was the latest in a series of tacks aimed at freeing an Israeli soldier captured last week. Israel holds the Hamas-led Palestinian government responsible. Now to southern Afghanistan. Two British soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed when their base came under attack. Four coalition soldiers were also wounded. The killings come amid a massive anti-Taliban campaign by U.S.-led coalition forces.</s>HARRIS: New tape, new message. Yet another audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden has been posted on a militant Web site. The speaker calls on Sunnis to fight Shiites and the American occupation in Iraq. The Bush administration is trying to determine the tape's authenticity. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the slain terror leader in Iraq, has reportedly been buried in a secret location in Iraq. Wire service reports say that word comes today from Iraq's national security adviser. Iraqi officials would not give specific details. As you may recall, al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 7th.</s>NGUYEN: It is election day in Mexico. Polls opened just minutes ago. Mexicans are voting for a new president, and there are three major candidates. President Vicente Fox is nearing the end of his six-year term, and by Mexican law he cannot run again. As you just heard moments ago, NASA is trying once again to get that shuttle off the ground and into space. Here's a live look. Weather at the Kennedy Space Center forced the cancellation of yesterday's planned launch. The hope is that it won't do it again today, but...</s>HARRIS: Well, the conditions may not be much better today. CNN's Miles O'Brien joins us live from the Kennedy Space Center with the latest. Miles, good morning to you.</s>O'BRIEN: Tony, good morning to you. Good morning to you, Betty. Seventy percent the weather will step in the way of the planned space shuttle launch -- 3:26 p.m. Eastern Time is the intended launch time. That's the time when the International Space Station is right overhead and the space shuttle can tag up with it. That is, after all, their goal, to deliver about 5,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, as well as an additional crew member. It will be the first time three crew members would be on board that International Space Station since the loss of Columbia. A lot of concern in advance of this launch about the shedding foam problem, that persistent problem of foam falling off the orange external fuel tank of the space shuttle, which, of course, was what ultimately led to the loss of the space shuttle Columbia three and a half years ago. After a Columbia a year ago, we saw on the Discovery mission where another big piece of foam fell off, harmlessly, fortunately. There was another redesign of that tank. And yet, there are still some lingering concerns in the engineering community that the tank may not be totally fixed. That said, the NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, has decided it is time to fly. Let's listen to what he had to say in an interview that will appear later on "LATE EDITION."</s>MICHAEL GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We quite literally don't know how to -- taking the literal interpretation of the words -- eliminate debris shedding from the external tank. We don't know how to make the orbiter any more resilient than it is, and we've been spending money and time on tile repair techniques for use on orbit, but so far, they're just rudimentary.</s>O'BRIEN: Rudimentary and not certified for flight. That's NASA administrator Mike Griffin. You can see that full interview, 11:00 a.m. Eastern, on "LATE EDITION" today with John Roberts. Joining me now is Eileen Collins, who flew the mission a year ago, as you look at live picture of the ice team out there. The space shuttle is loaded up with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. They're out there looking for a buildup of ice and any other debris that might be a problem. Eileen Collins with us now. And we want to talk about some of these repair techniques, which on your mission a year ago were tested out. What are some of the options a crew has and how far along are we in these repairs -- in this notion of repairing a wounded shuttle in flight?</s>EILEEN COLLINS, ASTRONAUT: Well, there's two general types of repairs that we need to be able to do. One is to the wing leading edge, which is where Columbia had their problem, and that's hard material. It's calls reinforced carbon-carbon. The other type would be to the tiles which are underneath the shuttle. And again, they repel the heat on entry. NASA has methods in both areas, but only for small, I would say, cracks or holes. Anything as large as Columbia, we still don't know how to fix that. None of these techniques are really fully certified. They're all still in the testing phase, and it's turned out to be a very difficult thing to do.</s>O'BRIEN: Let's look at some of the tape from your mission. And there were some tests that were conducted in space of these ideas. And the question that comes up as they -- for example, in this case, there was -- I guess it's sort of like -- it's almost like a caulking gun, essentially, is what we're seeing here, which is part of an effort that would fix tiles. Did they have much luck on this mission? Did it go well? And would you fly home with something that is caulked this way?</s>COLLINS: Actually, what we're seeing here is Steve Robinson (ph) using a nearly called noax (ph), which you would actually try to put this material into a crack or a small hole. The actual application was very successful. Steve was able to do this without too much trouble, but the materials were brought back and tested, but yet we need many more samples, we need to test it in a real environment to know for sure if it's really going to work. So the testing is still in progress.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes. And certainly you would want to know an awful lot more about it before you strapped in a crew and decided to come home, relying on a repair like this.</s>COLLINS: That's right. And that would be a decision that the mission management team would have to make based on where the engineers are at that point in time in the development of and the testing of this material.</s>O'BRIEN: All right. That's just one of the techniques that's being considered. And incidentally, on this mission, there is no repair technique space walk planned unless they're able to squeeze out an extra day on the amount of fuel they have. So that's an optional third space walk. Hopefully that will come up. But the fact is, if there's a big crack in Discovery, unlikely they'll be able to repair it and feel confident to come home. Back to you guys in Atlanta.</s>HARRIS: Beautiful. Thanks, Miles.</s>NGUYEN: Thank you, Miles.</s>HARRIS: Eileen, thank you. Hey, we were wondering just a moment ago -- or maybe it was just me.</s>NGUYEN: I think it was more you, but that's OK.</s>HARRIS: Is it just me?</s>NGUYEN: It's a good question.</s>HARRIS: But you played along. And I appreciate it.</s>NGUYEN: Well, that's what I do, right?</s>HARRIS: Well, so let's -- let's pose it to Reynolds Wolf, and then maybe Miles can chime in a little later on it. This is a big shuttle.</s>NGUYEN: Right. It's got a lot of fuel.</s>HARRIS: We fly commercially through clouds every day.</s>NGUYEN: All the time.</s>HARRIS: All the time. Why are clouds a problem for that vessel? Reynolds, can you help me?</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, there's a variety of reasons. The biggest reason, of course, would be the thunderstorms that we have in the area. That's the biggest threat we have. I dare say that the thunderstorms, the anvil clouds we've been talking about...</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>WOLF: ... pose more of a threat, say, than your cirrus clouds, pose more than just your basic cumulus clouds. It's the anvil ones that I think they're really concerned with. And you were talking about how big this thing is. That shuttle stack we saw -- saw just a moment ago, the wide shot of the space shuttle, that is 4.5 million pounds, 4.5 million pounds. And you have to remember, I mean, this thing has got to go up -- it's got to reach a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. It takes half a million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen to get this thing 80 miles up. So...</s>HARRIS: Well -- well -- and Miles is standing by. And Miles, I asked this question because we fly all the time every day, we fly through these clouds.</s>O'BRIEN: But, Tony -- Tony -- Tony...</s>HARRIS: Betty just flew back from Hawaii and here she is.</s>O'BRIEN: Tony, Tony, you don't fly -- you don't fly on a $2 billion glider, OK?</s>HARRIS: Well, that's true.</s>O'BRIEN: You've got to remember, a lot of this weather we're talking about is the notion of having to come back in the event of an emergency.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>O'BRIEN: There is no go-arounds. They have to fly a very specific route down to the runway, and if there are clouds in the way, if there's a thunderstorm in the way, it's not like they can jog around it like delta can, OK?</s>NGUYEN: All right. See, now that makes perfect sense right there.</s>HARRIS: Oh, you would side with -- see, this happens to me all the time. You're siding with Miles on this.</s>NGUYEN: Well, because Miles is the expert here, all right? I think I'm going to side with the guy who knows.</s>HARRIS: Oh, you...</s>WOLF: You know what, though? I'd argue, though, that also your commercial jetliner is not going to carry the same amount of fuel that one of these things will. So, I mean...</s>NGUYEN: Fuel, exactly. That was my point. I mean, look at the fuel on this thing.</s>WOLF: Absolutely. I mean, it's going to have a lot of -- a lot of juice to get up high where it's got to go.</s>HARRIS: Betty, how many sides of this argument are you going to be on here?</s>NGUYEN: I'm with those guys.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>NGUYEN: OK, those guys over there.</s>HARRIS: All right, Reynolds. Give us a sense of the weather forecast for this launch today.</s>WOLF: That's how it looks.</s>NGUYEN: We'll do the best we can.</s>WOLF: What other choice do you have?</s>NGUYEN: Although it didn't work yesterday. I mean, that's all we've got. Right? OK. Thank you, Reynolds.</s>HARRIS: This is outrageous what's going on up here.</s>NGUYEN: I do side with you many other times.</s>HARRIS: You know what?</s>NGUYEN: Just, you know, not when you're wrong. OK. Moving on, we know a lot of you have a lot of questions -- yes, Tony had a question there. I mean, he was wrong about it, but that's OK. Send your questions in. We want to hear from you. Because you know what? Miles and Reynolds, they can answer those questions. Tony may not be able to, but Miles and Reynolds can. So, send them to weekends@cnn.com and we'll get those questions answered. Sorry, Tony.</s>HARRIS: These are questions that people have who watch.</s>NGUYEN: And they want to know.</s>HARRIS: And they want to know. I am the voice of the people.</s>NGUYEN: You're the facilitator.</s>HARRIS: Be sure to stay with CNN all morning long as we continue our coverage of the space shuttle Discovery launch. And at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, catch a special live show hosted by space correspondent and all around smart guy Miles O'Brien.</s>NGUYEN: Which he just proved, right?</s>HARRIS: Still ahead, what a world we live in.</s>NGUYEN: Oh, yes.</s>HARRIS: Three little words, tag, you're it, can now get kids in trouble on playgrounds.</s>NGUYEN: Get them in trouble?</s>HARRIS: Yes, that's right. Tag is being banned, believe it or not, by some school systems. What's next, SpongeBob lunchboxes?</s>NGUYEN: Huh? OK.</s>HARRIS: You know, SpongeBob SquarePants.</s>NGUYEN: Sure.</s>HARRIS: How about playing in the mud at recess?</s>NGUYEN: That can't get you into trouble.</s>HARRIS: Look, some schools have already cut recess out of the day entirely.</s>NGUYEN: That's outrageous.</s>HARRIS: We will take a closer look at why tag isn't it. That's a bit later.</s>NGUYEN: All right. We're also keeping a close watch on the weather down at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a number of reasons, and this is the main one right here...</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>NGUYEN: ... waiting for Discovery to get off the ground. We're going to be talking with Miles O'Brien at the bottom of the hour, so you'll want to stay tuned for that. CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues in just a moment.