Liftoff Status Home Page Static View of STS-87 Columbia at Liftoff . Launch window was 2 hours 30 minutes. Helium is used to purge the tanks before reactant loading. Workers were sent out to Pad 39B to inspect the purge line interfaces and tightened the fittings.
Mangers expect to recuperate from the delay with no significant impacts to the launch schedule.
Columbia began the roll out to Pad 39B at 7 a.m. Pad validations are in work and a hot fire test of auxiliary power unit No. 2 scheduled for later tonight. Vertical payload installation begins Saturday morning. The U.S. Microgravity Payload has been transferred to the pad's payload change-out room and the payload canister returned to the Operations and Checkout Building. The orbiter will be mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters in high bay 3 over the weekend and is slated to roll out to Pad 39B on Wednesday.