Lucky it's not launch day!

NASA's Cape Canaveral launch base was hit by a spectacular storm this morning, producing pictures that are truly out of this world.
A full inspection of the space shuttle Endeavour will have to be made after a day of high winds and hail.
No one was injured and no obvious damage could be seen, but did cause a slight delay to the training programme.
The six astronauts were at the Kennedy Space Centre today to practice emergency procedures at launch pad 39A but were prevented by the weather.

Two of the Endeavour astronauts -- mission specialists Michael Fincke and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency -- have not flown on a shuttle mission before so will have to squeeze in emergency escape training at the launch tower when the astronauts return on April 15 for final  preparations.
Commander Mark Kelly and his three other crewmates - pilot Gregory 'Box' Johnson and mission specialists Greg Chamitoff and Andrew 'Drew' Fuestel - all have flown on previous shuttle missions and have completed emergency training at the launch pad.

The astronauts will blast off at precisely  7:48 p.m. April 19 on a mission to deliver a $2billion high-energy particle detector to the ISS.

Kelly said the 15,000lb Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer had the potential to rewrite humanity's knowledge of the cosmos as it measures cosmic rays from a perch on the International Space Station. 

'We're pretty excited about what the results are going to be,' Kelly said. '(AMS Physicist and Nobel Laureate Sam Ting) told us that within an hour of attaching to the space station, they're going to start collecting data. AMS could be teaching us things about the universe that are completely unexpected.'
Finke, a veteran station commander and resident, said the crew is ready for the two-week shuttle flight.
'We're a team, we're a family and from what we've seen so far, I don't think there's anything out there we can't handle,' Finke said. 'When we have our game on, this is an amazing crew.'
The mission will be the 134th for the shuttle programme, the 36th shuttle trip to the station, and the 25th and final flight of Endeavour. Atlantis will launch on the 135th and final shuttle flight on June 28. 



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