Since there are only four remaining Space Shuttle Launches, I have decided to take my two kids to the next launch scheduled for April 5. I’m guessing seeing a launch will be even cooler than a landing.

There was good news from SpaceFlight Now today:

2055 GMT (4:55 p.m. EDT)
With signs at the entrance of Kennedy Space Center reading “10 days to launch” of the space shuttle Discovery, senior NASA officials met Friday for their Flight Readiness Review and blessed plans to proceed for the April 5 blastoff.
The extensive engineering assessment about a leaky helium isolation valve in the orbiter’s right-hand Reaction Control System was debated at length. Officials determined the shuttle can fly safely in the current condition without replacing the faulty part, which is not accessible at the launch pad and would require returning Discovery to its hangar. Managers said there are redundant ways to work around the problem and even if additional failures occur in the plumbing it would not risk the safety of the vehicle or crew.

A post-meeting press conference is coming up at 5:30 p.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center. We’ll stream the event live on this page.

Discovery’s astronauts will arrive at the Cape next Thursday at 7 a.m. EDT to begin their final pre-flight preps. The three-day launch countdown begins next Friday at 3 a.m. EDT.

The official launch window on April 5 extends from 6:16:22 to 6:26:22 a.m. EDT. The target liftoff time is 6:21:22 a.m. EDT, the precise moment when the launch pad and the orbital plane of the International Space Station are aligned.

The mission will deliver new internal equipment and supplies, plus an external coolant tank to the station. Three spacewalks are planned from the Quest airlock.

Discovery’s voyage home will feature a re-entry track used relatively rarely, streaking over northwestern U.S. and the nation’s heartland toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center on April 18 at 8:38 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft’s superhot plume will be visible, weather permitting, when it makes landfall over North America in the still-predawn skies.

The exact path the shuttle follows to the landing site is released by Mission Control a day or two prior to landing.