Discovery reaches at Launch Pad to avoid New Year’s Glitch

Space shuttle Discovery has reached at Launch Pad 39B in NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) that could be as early as Dec. 7.

Placed on top of the mobile launcher platform and carried by a massive crawler transporter, the shuttle assembly began the 7 Km journey at 12:29 a.m. EST and was officially in place at the pad at 9:03 a.m.

In an effort to avoid potential New Year's Eve computer glitches, NASA intends to launch the shuttle at least 13 days before the year ends. That means, launching opportunities would be available only from Dec. 7 to as late as Dec. 17 or 18, for a 12-day mission.

The worry is that the shuttle's computers would fall out of synchronization with ground systems if the ship were in orbit on 12am on January 1, as shuttle computers are not designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the New Year while in flight.

"We've just never had the computers up and going when we've transitioned from one year to another," said Discovery astronaut Joan Higginbotham. "We're not really sure how they're going to operate".

US Space agency’s managers were meeting on Thursday at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston to review flight preparations. They will also look over a proposal to trim a day off the previously targeted launch date of December 7. That would broaden the chances of the mission returning to Earth before the end of the year, said NASA spokesperson Jessica Rye.

If Discovery gets off the ground next month, it will be NASA's third and final mission of the year. NASA needs to fly 14 shuttle flights by 2010 to complete construction of the half-built $100-billion space station. The work requires cautious coordination with ground control teams and with the crew aboard the station, who will be left with inadequate power during the assembling work.

However, NASA was quick to say that even if the shuttle crew finds itself still orbiting in space on January 1, procedures could be devised to make a transition if necessary.

"Under some weird circumstance ... if we have an 'Oh my god,' and we have to be up there, I am sure we would figure out a way to operate the vehicle safely," said Steve Oswald, a vice president for Boeing Co., the parent company of the builders and designers of NASA's shuttles. "It just wouldn't be flying in the normal certified mode that we are used to flying."

Discovery's crew consisting five-man and two-woman is scheduled to reach at the Kennedy Space Centre on Monday to get ready for launch.