spacetoday.net: NASA rolls back Atlantis

Posted: Tue, Aug 29, 2006, 2:33 PM ET (1833 GMT)
STS-115: on pad before launch (NASA/KSC)

NASA shuttle managers decided Tuesday to roll the space shuttle Atlantis back to the Vehicle Assembly Building because of the threat posed by an approaching tropical storm, a decision that may delay the shuttle's launch until October. NASA waited until Tuesday morning to make the decision, 24 hours after beginning preparations for the rollback, to see if updated forecasts would change the course of Tropical Storm Ernesto. While Ernesto is expected to become, at most, a minimal hurricane, NASA officials decided that the best course of action was to move the shuttle inside the VAB to protect it from possible damage from flying debris. The rollback means that the shuttle would be unlikely to be ready to fly again before the current launch window closes on September 7. The end of the launch window is dictated by plans to launch a Soyuz mission later in September, and NASA has been in discussions with its Russian counterparts on the possibility of delaying the Soyuz launch to extend the shuttle launch window, although no decision has been reached. If such an extension is not possible, the next launch window will not open until late October.