NASA's
space shuttle Atlantis will blast off two days late next month due to delays
from recent storms that have also waylaid a planned November shuttle mission,
agency officials said Friday.
Atlantis is
now set to launch no earlier than Oct. 10 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center
(KSC) in Florida on the final mission to overhaul
the Hubble Space Telescope. The second shuttle mission is now pegged for a
Nov. 12 launch, two days later than planned, toward the International Space
Station.
The launch
targets for both missions - NASA's last two of the year - were pushed back due
to downtime associated with Tropical Storms Fay and Hanna, both of which hindered
flight preparations for Atlantis and its Hubble instrument cargo at the
seaside KSC spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
"It was
payload preparations," NASA spokesperson Candrea Thomas of KSC told SPACE.com.
"When we had Fay, it put the payload folks back four days. They made up two,
but it's just a matter of being able to get them some extra time so that we can
launch."
Atlantis'
payload for Hubble consists of new cameras, batteries, gyroscopes and other
spare parts that the shuttle's seven-astronaut crew plans to install during a
series of five back-to-back spacewalks set for the 11-day mission. The new
equipment will extend the iconic 18-year-old orbital observatory's life through
at least 2013, mission managers have said.
NASA closed
KSC for several days in late August when Tropical Storm Fay drenched the
spaceport with rain and battered it with high winds. The closure delayed Atlantis
move to NASA's 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building, where engineers later
attached the shuttle to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters.
Uncertainty
over Tropical Storm Hanna's path this week prompted mission managers to hold
off on hauling
Atlantis to Launch Pad 39A until Thursday, when it became clear the storm
would remain off shore and not imperil the shuttle.
Atlantis'
cargo, Thomas said, is due to join Atlantis at its launch pad on Sept. 19.
But the
delays for the Hubble-bound spaceflight also pushed back the November flight to
the space station because both missions must use the same Pad 39A launching
site. Endeavour's November shuttle mission, STS-126, is aimed at delivering
fresh supplies and new equipment that will help prepare the space station for larger,
six-person crews.
Once Atlantis
returns home from its Hubble mission, its sister ship Endeavour will be hauled
off a second shuttle launch pad and moved to Pad 39A, Thomas said. NASA plans
to ready Endeavour on the nearby Pad 39B at the spaceport in order to serve as
a rescue ship for the Atlantis astronauts should their spacecraft suffer
critical damage.
Unlike
recent shuttle flights to the International Space Station, Atlantis astronauts
will not be able to take refuge aboard the orbiting laboratory because it
circles the Earth in a lower orbit and different inclination than the Hubble
telescope.
Thomas said
that while the fringe effects of Hanna were dumping some rain on Atlantis and
the spaceport today, workers could head out to the launch pad later this
afternoon to resume flight preparations if the weather clears. As of Friday
morning, Hanna was centered about 110 miles (180 km) off the coast of Daytona
Beach, Fla., and moving northwest at 20 mph (32 kph) with maximum sustained
winds reaching speeds of about 65 mph (100 kph), according to the National
Hurricane Center.
Meanwhile,
NASA is keeping close tabs on Hurricane Ike, a Category 3 storm with maximum
sustained winds blowing up to 120 mph (195 kph) as it moves west across the
Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm's center
was located about 425 miles (685 km) north of the Leeward Islands.
"We are
watching that closely to see which way it goes and what we need to do," Thomas
said.
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