Discovery’s next launch on Friday at 12:22 a.m

Teams at Kennedy Space Center have completed a portion of the testing of a liquid hydrogen fill and drain valve in space shuttle Discovery’s main propulsion system. The valve opened and closed when commanded five different times with no issues. This “cycle testing” of Discovery began at 6:28 p.m. EDT and finished at 6:59 p.m.

Teams are now performing a pressure test of the propulsion system, and recording the leak rate of small amounts of liquid hydrogen. Data from tonight’s tests will be brought to tomorrow’s mission management team for evaluation at the noon meeting.

NASA is targeting Discovery’s next launch attempt for no earlier than Friday, Aug. 28 at 12:22 a.m., depending on the results of the testing and a review of the data by the mission management team.

Discovery’s countdown is expected to resume at the T-11 hour point at 8:57 a.m. tomorrow.