CAPE
CANAVERAL, Florida
(AP) -- The hail-damaged space shuttle Atlantis on
Sunday began a slow trek from the launch pad back to a hangar so technicians
can inspect the impact of a hail storm and determine what kind of repairs
should be made.
The 3.4-mile (5.47
kilometers) journey aboard the massive crawler-transporter started at 8:47 a.m.
EST (1347 GMT) and was expected to last about seven hours [image].
It was the 17th time in the
26-year-old shuttle program that one of the vehicles had to be moved back to
the Vehicle Assembly Building from the launch pad.
Last week's hail storm
caused thousands of dings [image]
in the insulating foam covering Atlantis' external fuel tank and forced NASA to
postpone
the space shuttle's launch from March 15 to at least late April.
Once Atlantis is back
inside, technicians will be able to assess whether the repairs to the tank can
be made at the Kennedy Space Center or if the tank needs to be shipped back to
its manufacturer near New Orleans, which likely would push back the launch to
June.
The insulating foam is of
special concern to NASA since a chunk of it flew off during space shuttle Columbia's launch in 2003 and struck the
orbiter. The damage allowed fiery gases to penetrate Columbia during
re-entry, breaking up the craft and killing its seven
astronauts.
NASA redesigned
the external tank, removing large amounts of foam, before last year's three
successful shuttle missions.
The space agency plans another design change to the tank before the shuttle
program ends in 2010.
NASA managers still hope to
fly five shuttle
missions in 2007, the most ambitious schedule in five years. Atlantis'
flight is set to be the first of the year.
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