This is a critical shuttle mission, since they are carrying the Colbert Treadmill up. Hope the weather lightens up (but not with more lightening). - HLG
Stormy, soggy weather
NASA initially delayed Discovery's trip by nearly two hours in order to keep shuttle technicians inside and safe from potential lightning strikes at the launch site. By 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT), it was safe to begin moving Discovery but sticky mud from recent thunderstorms forced engineers to stop repeatedly to clean the giant treads of NASA's 5.5 million-pound (2.4 million-kg) Apollo-era crawler carrier vehicle that hauls shuttles out to the launch pad.
"We had torrential rain here yesterday evening," NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel told SPACE.com from the spaceport. "It rained for hours ... so it was pretty soggy."
Despite the lightning and mud delays, shuttle technicians were more concerned about moving Discovery to the launch pad ahead of stormy weather that was expected to hit the spaceport Tuesday afternoon.
A tall lightning mast and shell-like protective structure at the launch pad can guard shuttles against lightning and stormy weather, but the spacecraft and their support crews are exposed to the elements when they make the short 3.2-mile (5-km) trek from NASA's massive Vehicle Assembly Building and Pad 39A.
Bolts of lightning struck 11 times near the shuttle launch pad last month, causing one of a series of delays for Discovery's sister ship Endeavour. That shuttle ultimately launched to the International Space Station on July 15 and landed July 31.
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