Discovery's Voyage Delayed as Storms Halt Countdown at the Cape

Intelligence from Cape Canaveral reports that the launching of the shuttle Discovery, set for this morning, was halted at the very brink of departure -- a mere five minutes remaining upon the countdown clock -- when thunderstorms gathered in the vicinity of the launch pad. Flight controllers, unwilling to hazard the vessel against the lightning and the gathering cloud, ordered the countdown stayed until conditions should improve.

The mission, designated 51-I in the register of the shuttle program and the sixth voyage of the Discovery herself, is charged with a most ambitious errand: the deployment of three communications satellites into the heavens, together with the repair, by means of a spacewalk, of the ailing SYNCOM-IV vessel, called also LEASAT 3, which has languished uselessly in orbit since a prior mission left it improperly started.

Command of the venture falls to Captain Joe H. Engle, a veteran of the astronaut corps, with Richard O. Covey at the pilot's station. They are joined by the mission specialists James D. A. van Hoften, John M. Lounge, and William F. Fisher, the latter two bound for a walk beyond the vessel's hull to effect the satellite's repair by hand, a feat of some daring.

Whether the weather shall relent remains a matter for the almanack and Providence alike. NASA's officers profess confidence that a fresh attempt may be made within days, though the gentleman reader will recall that such ventures are ever at the mercy of the elements.