CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA is pushing ahead with plans to launch its
Atlantis shuttle Sunday, though weather remains an ongoing concern for the afternoon
space shot.
Atlantis is
set to launch six astronauts and a hefty pair of trusses and solar arrays
towards the International Space Station (ISS) at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT)
Sunday, but rain and thunderstorms could thwart the attempt, and lightning has
already struck the orbiter's Pad 39B launch site.
NASA test
director Jeff Spaulding said the launch countdown for Atlantis' STS-115 mission
is currently on schedule, but that analysis is still underway to determine if
Friday's lightning strike - which hit the Pad 39B's lightning protection system
- affected the orbiter's systems in anyway.
"So far it
looks favorable but they are still evaluating as to which direction we need
go," Spaulding said the lightning strike checks.
A bolt of
lightning stuck one of the metal cables that run from the ground around
Atlantis' launch site to the top of a lightning rod on the pad gantry at about
2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) Friday.
A final
analysis will be discussed during a mission management team meeting scheduled
for 3:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) today, Spaulding added.
Shuttle
weather officer Kathy Winters said NASA is also keeping close tabs on Tropical
Storm Ernesto, which is currently gathering strength in the eastern Caribbean
and headed into the Gulf of Mexico. A National Weather Service forecast
predicts that the storm will gain hurricane status by Monday, and could become
a Category 3 storm by late next week.
Shuttle
officials said Friday that Ernesto, should it develop into a significant
hurricane and follow its current track, could impact NASA's shuttle and ISS
mission control operations at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. While it is still too early to predict Ernesto's path, if the storm forces an
evacuation of Houston similar to last year's response to Hurricane Rita,
Atlantis could return to Earth early.
Spaulding
said that should poor weather delay Atlantis' launch over the next several
days, flight controllers and mission managers would have to revisit discussions
on whether to press forward with the spaceflight while a potential hurricane
approaches the Gulf region.
"We have a
lot of contingency plans in place if in fact a hurricane does pop up while
we're in orbit," Spaulding said.
NASA's
STS-115 mission is the agency's first major ISS construction flight since the
2003 Columbia accident.
Weather
aside, the launch countdown is back on track now that Atlantis has been loaded
with the super-cold fuel cell propellants used to generate electricity for the
shuttle during flight. Thunderstorms and lightning delayed the loading process
Friday.
At about
5:00 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) today, some final pieces of cargo - including microbe
and yeast experiments - will be tucked away into lockers on Atlantis' middeck.
Pad workers expect to roll back the Rotating Service Structure, a shell-like
cover protecting Atlantis from this week's stormy weather, at about 7:00 p.m.
EDT (2300 GMT), shuttle officials said.
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