SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

LAUNCH COVERAGE

Space Shuttle Mission STS-116

Orbiter: Discovery Mission: Space Station Assembly Building 12A.1 Payload: P5 Integrated Truss Segment Launch Date: Dec. 7, 2006 Launch Time: 9:35 p.m. EST Launch Pad: 39B Landing Date: Dec. 19, 2006 Landing Time: 4:35 p.m. EST Mission Duration: 12 days

Launch Remains on Target for Thursday

Commander Mark Polansky tries on his launch and entry suit. Image above: Commander Mark Polansky tries on his orange launch and entry suit during a fit check at Kennedy Space Center three days before launch. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett + View Larger Image(SEE http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/index.html)

Liftoff remains targeted for 9:35 p.m. Thursday -- the midpoint of a 10-minute window. However, an approaching cold front is expected to bring a blanket of cloud cover to the area Thursday, so the forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of weather prohibiting launch.

Other than weather, there are no other issues expected to affect the launch time. Final preparations at Launch Pad 39B are on schedule and going well, and Space Shuttle Discovery and the STS-116 payloads are in good shape for flight.

Led by Commander Mark Polansky, the seven crew members arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, they had breakfast with their families, and while Polansky and Pilot Bill Oefelein spent part of Tuesday evening flying the Shuttle Training Aircraft, Mission Specialists Robert Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham, Nicholas Patrick, Christer Fuglesang and Sunita Williams checked the fit of their orange launch and entry suits.

The Launch Team Learn more about the NASA team that's responsible for the events that lead up to the liftoff of mission STS-116. + Meet the Launch Team