BBC science correspondent, Kennedy Space Center<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe Kennedy Space Center in Florida became enveloped in smoke on Wednesday as a fire raged on brushland close to the spaceport’s media complex.<\/p>\n
At one point, the smoke was so thick it obscured completely the view to shuttle Endeavour sitting on its launch pad.<\/p>\n
As helicopters dropped water on the blaze, Nasa said there would be no impact on lift-off preparations.<\/p>\n
The US shuttle Endeavour is due to begin its final mission this Friday to the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n
It will be delivering a $2bn (\u00a31.2bn) particle physics experiment called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.<\/p>\n
Before the drama of the fire, mission managers said they were very pleased with the progress of pre-launch activities.<\/p>\n
“We had a management team meeting this morning, a standard meeting on launch minus two days – just to review our status and see where we’re at,” explained Mike Moses, chair of the mission management team.<\/p>\n
“Everything’s in great shape; [it was a] very short meeting. The teams all polled ‘ready to go’ and proceed with the countdown.”<\/p>\n
Shuttle Endeavour will be using a relatively old external tank for its final launch.<\/p>\n
ET-122, as it is known, was originally built in 2002, but was damaged during Hurricane Katrina at its New Orleans manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n
It has been refurbished for this mission, not just to repair the storm defects but also to incorporate measures designed to limit the amount of insulation foam that can fall off a tank during launch – a persistent hazard down the years, and one that fatally damaged the Columbia shuttle on launch in 2003.<\/p>\n
Mr Moses said Nasa had no reservations about using ET-122.<\/p>\n
“If you take a look at it out on the pad, it looks a little more suntanned than other tanks because the [sunlight] makes that orange foam insulation turn a little darker, and it’s got some repair spots. But it’s in more than good shape to fly.”<\/p>\n
In what he said was a tribute to re-usability in the shuttle programme, he also revealed that components in the Solid-fuel Rocket Boosters for Endeavour were also used in the very first shuttle flight in 1981.<\/p>\n
The huge interest in the end days of the shuttle programme means large crowds will again gather around the Kennedy Space Center on launch day.<\/p>\n
For the Discovery orbiter’s final lift-off in February, up to half a million people lined local roads and beaches. The police are expecting perhaps up to 750,000 people to do the same on Friday.<\/p>\n
There will be about 40,000 guests inside KSC. These are likely to include President Barack Obama and his family.<\/p>\n
Also present will be Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the wife of Endeavour’s commander, Mark Kelly. Ms Giffords is currently recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, sustained during a shooting spree by a gunman in her constituency on 8 January.<\/p>\n
Mission managers promise these visitors will not prove a distraction to the launch teams as they prepare the second-from-last shuttle mission.<\/p>\n
Only the Atlantis orbiter will be left in active service once Endeavour returns. Atlantis is expected to make it final journey into orbit sometime in June or July.<\/p>\n
All of Nasa’s ships are being retired to make way for astronaut “taxis” to be provided by the private sector later this decade.<\/p>\n
“The end of the programme is coming one at a time,” said shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach. “Discovery is now being taken apart and being made safe for final display, and that will start on Endeavour when she gets home.<\/p>\n
“It’s kinda sad to see the end, of course, but we’re dealing with it. I just hope the next programme comes more quickly than a lot of people are expecting.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read more here:
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![\"Jonahan](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/e1e3cfe3nathanamos2.jpg.jpg\")
By Jonathan Amos<\/span> BBC science correspondent, Kennedy Space Center<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n