Praying for clear skies

Arrived KSC just before nine. About a 30 minute drive from where I’m staying on Cocoa Beach. The car temperature gauge was reading 82F as I pulled into the car park at press centre.

Had dinner last evening wth Ken Kremer and some Dutch writers, and a journalist with Scientific American magazine. One of the Dutch guys, Jacob Kuiper, works for the weather service in Holland.

Very interesting guy who certainly knows his altostratus from his cumulonimbus - and a lot more besides, including volcanic ash clouds and the spread of radiation in the atmosphere from the Japanese nuclear reactors.

Back to the Shuttle, he told me that if the skies over the UK are clear tomorrow evening then the Space Shuttle ground-track will bring it across England.

So, given the right conditions, the Shuttle (and the separated external tank) should be visible in the sky between 18 and 20 minutes (9.05 pm BST) after launch.

Watch the launch live on NASA TV, have a cuppa and then pop outside to see Endeavour passing overhead with its crew of six. How cool would that be?