Washington - Nasa gave a final green light to continue the countdown to the launch of the shuttle Discovery on Tuesday toward the International Space Station, carrying a crew of seven including a Swede.
Mission officials said at a press briefing Sunday they saw no likely technical hurdles to takeoff August 25 at 01:36am (0536 GMT) from Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The weather also was looking up with about 80 percent chance of launch-friendly meteorological conditions compared to the 70 percent favourable forecast on Friday, said meteorologist Kathy Winters.
Still there was still a risk of thunderstorms and lightning within an eight-kilometre range of the launchpad where the shuttle's external fuel tank is supposed to start being filled with nearly two million litres of liquid hydrogen and oxygen shortly after 2000 GMT on Monday, she added.
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"Obviously, the weather is going to be one of our challenges" for filling the fuel tank, said Mike Moses, director of the Mission Management Team.
If the fill-up were delayed more than three hours, the launch would be postponed Tuesday and delayed by 24 hours, he said.
But Kathy Winters noted that the storm possibilities looked to be their worst in the first hour of the scheduled tank filling.
Nonetheless, launch director Pete Nickolenko said there were four launch attempts available within five days from August 25-30, and that he was "96 percent certain" of being able to launch in that window.
The shuttle is to deliver equipment for a new bedroom, a treadmill, a freezer, food and other supplies. It will also be dropping off the newest member of the ISS team - US astronaut Nicole Stott.
Stott will be taking over from engineer and fellow American Tim Kopra, who has been aboard the ISS since July and is returning to Earth with the Discovery.
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