NASA readies crucial shuttle flight from Florida

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, July 1 (Reuters) NASA counted down to the launch of space shuttle Discovery today, hoping to fly a crucial mission whose failure could ground the shuttle fleet permanently and leave the International Space Station unfinished.

Discovery is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:49 pm (local time) on a voyage to the space station that will test repairs to the shuttle's troublesome fuel tank, which triggered the destruction of shuttle Columbia and the deaths of seven astronauts in 2003.

NASA weather officials predicted a 60 per cent chance the flight will have to be postponed, with lightning near the launch site the potential culprit.

''We're looking forward to good weather and when we have it were going to be ready to go,'' NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said at a news briefing yesterday.

Griffin decided to launch the shuttle over the objections of the US space agency's head of safety and its top engineer, who wanted the mission delayed to allow more work on the fuel tank and its insulating foam.

He has said if the shuttle encounters another major problem, he would likely shut down the program. The spacecraft began flying in 1981 and is scheduled for retirement in 2010 as NASA develops a new manned spaceship capable of travelling to the moon and beyond.

The shuttle is the only spacecraft capable of carrying the remaining components for completion of the 100 billion dollars space station.

NASA has spent 1.3 billion dollars on repairs and safety upgrades to the shuttle fleet since Columbia disintegrated over Texas in February 2003. But the work failed to completely resolve a problem with insulating foam on the fuel tank breaking off during launch.

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