Article Posted on : - Sep 03, 2008

WASHINTON, DC (BNS): Managers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will closely follow the path of Tropical Storm Hanna and decide the appropriate time to move Space Shuttle Atlantis to its launch pad.

The roll out was postponed to Tuesday (September 2) from the Saturday before, as the workers encountered a problem with a pin used in the attachment of the shuttle orbiter to its external tank.

According to present indications, Shuttle Atlantis is now likely to be rolled out from Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A on Thursday, September 4, at 12:01 am EDT.

If Storm Hanna doesn’t change its path, NASA managers will wait until the storm dies down and passes off the coast of Kennedy. In that likelihood, the Shuttle Atlantis will be moved to the Launch Pad on Saturday morning. Earlier, rollout was scheduled for Tuesday, but was delayed due to Storm Hanna's threat.

Shuttle Atlantis is expected to lift off on October 8 on an 11-day mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.