spacetoday.net: Weather concerns put shuttle rollout on hold

Weather concerns put shuttle rollout on hold

Posted: Tue, Sep 2, 2008, 3:01 PM ET (1901 GMT)
NASA has delayed the rollout of the shuttle Atlantis to its launch pad until at least Thursday morning as the space agency waits out a tropical storm brewing off the Florida coast. Tropical Storm Hanna, currently in the Bahamas, is expected to strengthen to hurricane force and pass off the coast from the Kennedy Space Center later this week. If the storm maintains that path, agency officials said Tuesday the shuttle would likely be rolled out to the pad on Saturday. Rollout had been scheduled for last Saturday, but was delayed until Tuesday because of additional work needed to be performed in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Atlantis is still scheduled to launch on October 8 on STS-125, a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, but NASA said that launch date will be reevaluated after the shuttle makes it to the launch pad.