NATION : Repairs Threaten Shuttle Delay

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The shuttle Discovery has only a “50-50 shot” at getting off the ground on schedule Wednesday night to kick off a secret military flight because of work to complete a booster repair job, a top NASA official said today.

“It’s real tight,” astronaut Brewster Shaw, the new deputy manager of the shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center, said while engineers worked around the clock to make up lost time, in addition to conducting normal countdown tasks.

Despite the backlog of unfinished work, Discovery’s countdown began on time Sunday for a Thanksgiving-eve launch to put what is believed to be a military spy satellite in orbit.

As with all military shuttle missions, the exact launch time is classified--NASA will only say liftoff is planned for between 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.--but sources have said Discovery’s takeoff is scheduled for around 7:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. PST).