Storms could force Shuttle launch Delay
'Pakistan Times' Monitoring Desk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (US): The possibility of stormy weather was a primary concern Saturday as NASA counted down for a launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to resume construction of the international space station for the first time in almost four years.

Shuttle weather officers said there was a 60 percent chance the weather would prevent the shuttle from blasting off at the scheduled launch time of 4:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, up from 40 percent a day earlier.

NASA won't launch if there are storms within 23 miles of the shuttle landing runway, in case astronauts need to make an emergency landing.

"We'll get a feel for it as we're going through the countdown," said shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters.

The forecast was expected to improve dramatically for Monday and Tuesday, with only a 20 percent chance that weather would prevent a launch on either of those days. NASA plans included four potential launch times over five days.

NASA wasn't tracking any technical issues with Atlantis on Saturday, although engineers were still evaluating data to see whether lightning that struck the launch pad on Friday caused any problems.

Shuttle weather officers also were tracking Tropical Storm Ernesto, which was likely to enter the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday or Wednesday and threatened to reach hurricane strength. Ernesto wasn't expected to affect a launch on Sunday, but it could cause problems if Atlantis doesn't lift off until the middle of the week.

In a worst-case scenario, if Ernesto were to strike Texas after the shuttle's launch and workers were forced to evacuate Mission Control in Houston, the shuttle astronauts would have to leave the station and return to Earth at the first opportunity.

An evacuation would mean flight controllers couldn't sufficiently support a mission as complex as this, which will attach an addition to the space station, NASA managers said.

In that situation, NASA controllers and the astronauts would make every effort to leave the 17 1/2-ton addition the shuttle is carrying at the space station. That $372 million addition has two solar power wings that eventually will provide a quarter of the station's electricity.

"If we had to evacuate (Houston) ... we would not be able to execute the docked mission. ... Certainly not of the complexity of the one we're about to embark on," said Leroy Cain, launch integration manager.

"We would leave the station in the safest configuration and come back and pick up the pieces ... on a subsequent mission."

Construction of the half-built space station has been on hiatus since the 2003 Columbia disaster, which killed seven astronauts.

Atlantis' mission is the first of 15 flights scheduled to finish building the space station before the cargo-carrying shuttles are retired in 2010.

"We have to let this one occur before the next ones can go," said Mike Suffredini, NASA space station program manager. "This is clearly in the critical path for success in assembly."●