After two months of continuous delays, and just when everything seemed to work out as planned for the Thursday launch, a cold weather front is expected to set in over Kennedy around the time of the liftoff, which means there are only 30 percent chances for the launch to take place.

The Mission Management Team gave a green light this morning, after loading Atlantis’ fuel tank with 500,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, as NASA official site reported, and the liftoff was scheduled for 2:45 p.m. EST. The space shuttle will be then eligible to catch up with the International Space Station in the ten minutes launch-window.

From a technical point of view, no problems have been signaled, but the question now is whether Atlantis will benefit from stable weather conditions at the time of the launch. The NASA officials said they will not cancel the launch unless the weather conditions will go against the flight regulations for weather or any other safety conditions.

“We are hopeful that the front will time its approach just to the north and give us a slight break in the clouds prior to our 2:45 launch time,” launch commentator George Diller said, as quoted by Reuters. The expedition is expected to last 11 days and its prime objective is to attach the European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station.

The crew is made up of six people: the commander of the crew and NASA astronaut Steve Frick, pilot Alan Pointdexter and mission specialists Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Stanley Love, and also Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts from the European Space Agency, some of them at their first spaceflight.

Columbus is a great achievement for Europe and it is something the European Space Agency has been waiting for a long time. The Columbus will be controlled by the special Columbus Control Centre in Germany and it will enable scientists to conduct experiments on the behavior of weightless liquids and micro-organisms.