Storm Ends Hope for Tuesday Space Launch

Launch Director Mike Leinbach talks about weather conditions with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, Aug. 27, 2006. NASA officials will decide Monday morning whether to roll back the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Vehicle Assembly Building because of Tropical Storm Ernesto. (AP Photo/John Raoux) (John Raoux - AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- With Tropical Storm Ernesto closing in, NASA gave up on a Tuesday shuttle launch and prepared to roll Atlantis back to the hangar unless the storm changed course.

The shuttle's 12-hour trip back to the Vehicle Assembly Building would mean a delay of at least eight days, complicating the space agency's plans to get on with construction of the international space station.

Such a delay would also interfere with Russia's plans in mid-September to send a Soyuz spacecraft with two crew members and a space tourist to the orbiting space lab.

If the storm changed direction, a liftoff could be attempted this weekend, said launch director Mike Leinbach, but that seems unlikely.

"We're firmly on the path to rollback," he said. "It's clear in our minds that we're rolling back ... unless something really extraordinary happens."

The National Hurricane Center's forecast put Ernesto's track on or just slightly east of Kennedy Space Center late Wednesday or early Thursday. The center listed a 60 percent chance of tropical storm force winds _ sustained winds of at least 39 mph _ just south of the cape.

NASA rules say the shuttle should not be outside in winds of more than 45 mph.

Mission Control informed astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth in the space station, about the delay of the six visitors. Atlantis' crew members were instead likely headed back to Houston ahead of the storm.

"Sounds like everyone's got a lot of replanning to do," Williams said. "We're flexible."

NASA could launch Atlantis as late as Sept. 13, but only with the Russians signing off on it and delaying their own Soyuz launch. Otherwise the next opportunities to launch Atlantis this year are a few days in late October and a mission already planned for mid-December.

"We have already started looking proactively at our options beyond September, but by no means are we giving up on September," said LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager.

NASA wants to launch the shuttle in daylight so pictures can be taken of its external fuel tank where insulating foam has fallen off during previous launches. However, Cain says that requirement might be changed because of these new developments.