At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) Hurricane Lili was in the Gulf of Mexico about 365 miles (588 kilometers) south-southeast of New Orleans. It was moving to the northwest at 15 mph (24 kph) and had sustained winds of 120 mph (193 kph), making it a very dangerous Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

A hurricane warning was issued for the Gulf Coast from east of High Island, Texas to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The greater Houston area is officially under a tropical storm warning at this hour but also sits right on the western edge of the hurricane warning.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Lili's hurricane force winds extend 45 miles (72 kilometers) from its center, while tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 185 miles (298 kilometers).

The current forecast predicts that Lili will begin turning more to the north late Wednesday or early Thursday and then make landfall in Louisiana late Thursday afternoon.

But with the storm still on a northwest track through the Gulf late Tuesday and into early this morning, the decision was made to begin powering down the Mission Control computer and communications networks that keep an eye on things during a shuttle mission and aboard the International Space Station.

"When it became obvious that they...did not have the luxury of any additional time to wait and make the appropriate decision, they did the right thing which is put the safety of the people and the resources first," NASA's mission management team leader Jim Halsell said Wednesday morning.

"We completely understood their situation and we emphatically agree with them that we need to give them the time necessary to do this right and not do it in a hurry," Halsell said.

By morning the space station control room had been shut down and operations turned over to the Houston Support Group that works in the Mission Control Center near Moscow. The shuttle control room was officially shut down a few hours later.

For the Expedition Five crew in space, the change of control centers should be relatively transparent to them, Halsell said.

American astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has been in space since June, still will be able to speak to people on the ground and operations on board the station will basically remain normal as the crew continues to unpack a Progress cargo freighter that arrived at the outpost this past Sunday.

Officials said that Whitson's family and home in Houston is being well cared for in her absence.

"There's been a whole small army of people who have swung into action to make sure her family and her life back here in Houston will be exactly the same when she gets back as when she departed," Halsell said.

For the six-member flight crew of shuttle Atlantis, who decided to remain at the Canaveral Spaceport to await launch, the delay means some extra time flying the shuttle training aircraft and some extra time relaxing on the beach.

"We can keep the crews and families here where they are safe and sound, and enjoy a few more days of Florida sunshine while we let this play out," Halsell said.

The next decision point is expected late Wednesday afternoon when manager in Houston will take a look at Lili's track and decide if a full evacuation of the government campus at JSC is needed. If it is, the chances of launching on Monday become more remote. If not, then as soon as the storm makes landfall on Thursday workers will begin reactivating the systems.

"It will take some period of time for them to go through the procedures required to bring the power back up, to bring the systems back on line to re-establish the network, and then go through a series of brief validations and retesting to ensure that they are absolutely 100 percent ready to safely support," Halsell said.

If all goes well, then a Monday launch attempt could be possible. The Mission Management Team is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) Sunday to take a look at the situation and determining the agency's readiness to support Atlantis' flight.

In the meantime, work at KSC's launch pad 39B continues to go well and Atlantis remains in good shape for its mission.

"We're just standing by and we're ready to go whenever the hurricane clears Houston and JSC is ready to support," Leinbach said.

As a result of the delay, engineers will drain the shuttle's electricity-generating fuel cell system of its supply of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen reactants.

That system will be re-filled Saturday night and the shuttle's communication systems activated Sunday afternoon in anticipation of a launch between 2 and 6 p.m. EDT (1800 and 2200 GMT) Monday. NASA will release the official launch time during a news media briefing scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT) Sunday.