spacetoday.net: Lightning strikes postpone shuttle launch

Posted: Sat, Jul 11, 2009, 2:18 PM ET (1818 GMT)
STS-127: lightning strike on the pad (NASA/KSC)

NASA scrubbed Saturday's scheduled launch of the space shuttle Endeavour this morning in order to given engineering more time to investigate any damage caused by lightning strikes on Friday. Endeavour was scheduled to launch at 7:39 pm EDT (2339 GMT) Saturday on STS-127, but shuttle managers decided to postpone the launch Saturday morning. The launch complex was hut by a severe thunderstorm Friday afternoon that triggered a number of lightning strikes around the pad. Officials said that shuttle engineers need the additional time to check out shuttle systems to ensure nothing was damaged by the storm, although there were no indications of any problems. The mission is now scheduled for launch at 7:13 pm EDT (2313 GMT) Sunday, with a 60-percent chance of acceptable weather.