Space Shuttle Discovery's Final Launch
CHETRY: It's 44 minutes past the hour right now. Space shuttle Discovery, it's the busiest shuttle in history and on track for the final launch on Wednesday. NASA says THAT engineers had to fix two minor gas leaks on the bird which delayed the final mission for two days.</s>ROBERTS: We're also getting very close to astronaut Cady Coleman's big day. We've watched her get ready for life on the space station for the past year and John Zarrella has the latest chapter for us now and joins us live from Miami. Good morning, John.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John, Kiran. About six weeks to go before Cady's lift off at the international space station. And you know when you're going away for a long period of time, your family may like to throw you a good-bye party, a send-off party. That's exactly what Katie's family did. And since we're kind of sort of, part of the family, we got an invite too.</s>ZARRELLA (voice-over): A family walk. There are so many in astronaut Cady Coleman's family, it's not often they get together in one place or under one roof.</s>CARI HOPKINS, CADY'S SISTER: We wanted to all be together before Katie left and we knew we couldn't go to Russia to see her launch, unfortunately, so we thought this is the best way to do it.</s>ZARRELLA: So with just six weeks until her launch, they rented a house in rural Ohio, sleeps 20, they needed every bed. The famous family pie, gone before we got there.</s>CADY COLEMAN, NASA ASTRONAUT: This is grasshopper pie. This is like a family tradition at Thanksgiving.</s>ZARRELLA: Now, I wouldn't say they're skeletons, but it turns out there are things we didn't know about Cady until the party and her roast.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she loved one thing, and that thing was</s>ZARRELLA: Hopefully she grew out of it. There's no beer on the space station.</s>HOPKINS: Can I tell you, we had to share a room when we were young. That I'm still here to talk about it is really a miracle. My side of the room, incredibly perfect.</s>ZARRELLA (on camera): Spotless.</s>HOPKINS: Cady's side -- not so much.</s>ZARRELLA: She said your side of the room was always messy.</s>COLEMAN: So?</s>HOPKINS: That's her rebuttal. Hello.</s>ZARRELLA: This is a PhD and her rebuttal is, "So?"</s>ANNIE DODY, CADY'S MOTHER: I'm very proud of her.</s>COLEMAN: Are you worried?</s>DODY: No, no.</s>COLEMAN: That's good.</s>DODY: We've always said that what will be, will be.</s>MACAIRE HOPKINS, CADY'S NIECE: It takes a lot of, I don't know, intelligence and bravery to go up in space.</s>ZARRELLA (voice-over): But being absentminded, apparently that's OK.</s>C. HOPKINS: We're just really glad there's not keys to the space shuttle because she'd misplace them.</s>ZARRELLA: The family insists they're not competitive, maybe the spirited pumpkin carving contest was the exception. Baby Calvin playing the role of the great pumpkin. So this was it, time for the family photo. Yes, that would be me. (on camera): You guys are really dysfunctional, you know that?</s>ZARRELLA: But clearly, happy together.</s>ZARRELLA: What a cute baby she was. Now Cady takes off to the for the International Space Station about six weeks from now. The 15th, 16th of December. She leaves for Russia sometime this week. And boy, aren't they talented? Those pumpkins? I could never carve a pumpkin like that -- John, Kiran.</s>CHETRY: A nice family. And it's nice to know how much support she has as she's getting ready to do this. John, great piece. Thanks so much.</s>ZARRELLA: Yes.</s>CHETRY: Well, Republicans could be on the verge of taking back the house, but still fall a few seats short in the Senate. Does the Tea Party have any regrets about that? We'll ask the chairwoman of the Tea Party Express, Amy Kremer, still ahead.