Depending on its strength and ultimate course, Lili will either force NASA managers to roll Atlantis back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and delay the launch several days -- or nothing will happen at all and the countdown will continue as planned.

Right now the launch remains scheduled for between 2 and 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The actual launch time will be announced Tuesday afternoon.

Stay tuned to this page for updates throughout the mission.

Launch week has arrived
Monday, Sept. 30, 2002 at 9 a.m. EDT

NASA managers have confirmed that shuttle Atlantis' countdown has begun and that the six-member crew safely arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday.

During the first countdown status briefing this morning officials acknowledged the long summer hiatus in launchings thanks mostly to the flow liner cracks in the liquid hydrogen plumbing of Atlantis' propulsion system, and expressed their confidence that that issue is resolved.

Meanwhile, everything is going well at launch pad 39B and there are no technical problems to report. Officials say they can make four attempts during the five days beginning Wednesday before they would have to stand down to reload some consumables into Atlantis.

Also, Atlantis must be off the ground by Oct. 19 because of the periodic concerns about the angle of the sun in relation to the docked shuttle-station combination -- the so-called beta-angle cutout.

The weather forecast is looking good too, despite the presence of Tropical Storm Lili south of Cuba. Air Force weather officials predict a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions.

By launch day Lili -- which is expected to strengthen into a hurricane -- will be in the Gulf of Mexico well to our west, but increased winds and the chance of isolated coastal showers remain a possibility here on Florida's Atlantic coast.

Liftoff remains set for between 2 and 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The exact launch time will be announced Tuesday afternoon.

Stay tuned to this page for countdown updates.

Hurricane Lili still a concern for launch
Monday, Sept. 30, 2002 at 4:45 p.m. EDT

Hurricane Lili is heading toward the U.S. Gulf coast and there is enough uncertainty in its track that shuttle Atlantis' launch could be delayed -- not because of bad weather at the Cape but because of a potential threat to Mission Control in Houston.

Shuttle program director Ron Dittemore said they will not launch if there's a reasonable chance the storm could shut down operations at the Johnson Space Center. Moreover, Dittemore wants to make sure the 30 or so people from Houston who are now at the Cape would have time to return to their homes and families in Texas if the storm was heading that way.

NASA does not have a fully redundant Mission Control center. If something were to happen in Houston during a shuttle mission, control of the flight would switch to the Kennedy Space Center, where the center's launch processing system could be used to monitor the mission until it could be ended.

Space station operations would be handled in Moscow.

Speaking at the pre-launch news conference just concluded, Dittemore said he expected a decision on delaying the launch wouldn't be made until Wednesday morning, before the shuttle's external tank was filled with its supply of propellant.

Meanwhile, officials report that launch preparations are moving along on schedule and without incident. The weather continues to look generally favorable for launch Wednesday with a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions.

For this mission NASA is only activating the overseas landing sites in Spain. A site in Africa will not be used because of general security concerns in the region, although Dittemore said there was no specific security threat.

Liftoff remains on target for between 2 and 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The exact launch time will be announced Tuesday afternoon.

Stay tuned to this page for countdown updates.

Officials still wary of Hurricane Lili
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 at 9:20 a.m. EDT

The Kennedy Space Center launch team is continuing to prepare shuttle Atlantis for an on time blast off Wednesday even as the weather experts keep an eye on Hurricane Lili and its potential threat to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The processing at pad 39B is reported to be going well and there are no technical issues that would prevent launch. Local weather remains generally favorable and the chance of acceptable conditions for launch on Wednesday remains at 60 percent, with gusting winds at the shuttle runway the top concern.

As for Lili, at 8 a.m. EDT the National Hurricane Center reported that the Category One storm was near the southeast coast of the Isle of Youth and moving west-northwest at 13 mph. Maximum sustained winds are at 85 mph and strengthening to a Category Two storm is very likely. The predicted storm track as of the 8 a.m. EDT advisory has the storm making landfall over Lousiana late Thursday night.

The challenge NASA managers face deals with the uncertainty inherent in any hurricane forecast combined with the timing of when they must decide whether or not to proceed with the launch. The concern is that the space agency does not want to be flying a shuttle mission to the International Space Station while its Mission Control Center in Houston must be evacuated.

Mission managers will meet this afternoon to take another look at the situation, but it's very likely a decision to delay the launch until the storm threat to Houston passes will be made Wednesday morning -- if necessary -- before the external tank is loaded with its half-million gallons of propellant.

Keep an eye on this page for updates this afternoon, as well as the announcement on the exact launch time for Wednesday.

NASA delays launch to Thursday
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 at 3:30 p.m. EDT

NASA has delayed launch of shuttle Atlantis to no earlier than Thursday because of concerns about Hurricane Lili potentially striking the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Mission managers will meet again Wednesday morning to decide if the launch should be slipped again.

We will update this page with additional information very soon.

Atlantis launch slips to Thursday
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 at 4 p.m. EDT

With Hurricane Lili spinning up a fury in the Gulf of Mexico and heading toward the Texas and Louisiana coasts, NASA managers have decided to keep shuttle Atlantis on the ground for at least an extra day.

That will give the space agency time to see exactly where in the Gulf of Mexico the storm is going to drift and determine if Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will have to be evacuated -- a situation that obviously would prevent the International Space Station assembly mission from beginning.

As of the 2 p.m. EDT advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Lili was moving across the west end of Cuba and had strengthened into a Category Two storm with sustained winds of 100 mph. The forecast storm track takes it through the center of the Gulf on a direct northwest line toward Houston, and then turning late Wednesday or early Thursday more to the north to make landfall over Louisiana during the day Thursday.

If that story remains the same for the next 36 hours, it's possible that NASA will approve a launch attempt on Thursday and Atlantis will lift off between 2 and 6 p.m. EDT. Mission managers will meet again Wednesday morning to determine if an additional launch delay is warranted.

In the meantime, the six-member flight crew will remain at the Kennedy Space Center and countdown preparations will be put on hold.

Technically everything still looks good and the weather forecast for a launch attempt on either Thursday or Friday is favorable with a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions during the launch window.

Stay tuned to this page on Wednesday for updates on when Atlantis might fly.

Houston under Hurricane Watch
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 at 8 p.m. EDT

A hurricane watch is now in effect for the Houston area as Hurricane Lili takes aim at the Gulf coast with landfall somewhere along Texas and Louisiana expected late Thursday. As a result, Johnson Space Center officials are preparing to go to their next level of storm readiness.

Known as Level 3, the storm manual calls for the orderly powering down of critical Mission Control systems as a prelude to evacuating the government campus before dangerous winds arrive with the hurricane. When that happens there will be an impact to both space shuttle and space station operations.

At the Kennedy Space Center, shuttle Atlantis and a six-member flight crew awaits launch to the International Space Station. Their assembly mission, originally set to fly Wednesday, was officially delayed this afternoon to no earlier than Thursday.

But when JSC powers down its Mission Control systems, it will take at least a couple of days for the systems to be brought back online once the storm passes. As a result, Atlantis very likely won't fly until Friday at the earliest, if not this weekend. For now the launch officially remains targeted for Thursday.

In space, the Expedition Five crew would be forced to rely solely on their contact with Russian flight controllers until back up communications could be established via NASA ground stations in California and Virginia. Also, some systems aboard the outpost that are normally monitored by U.S. controllers would be shut down until JSC was reactivated.

During the past hour the ISS crew was warned that JSC was going to go to Level 3 and that Houston flight controllers might not be on the air when the crew awakes for their next work day.

An overnight meeting is scheduled in Houston to assess the weather situation and determine what to do next. That will be followed by a 7:45 a.m. EDT meeting of shuttle mission managers, who very likely will officially delay Atlantis' flight again at least another day, if not more.

We will update this page again once we learn the results of that meeting in the morning.

Atlantis launch off until Monday
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2002 at 8:45 a.m. EDT

NASA has officially postponed the launch of shuttle Atlantis until Monday at the earliest and Hurricane Lili is to blame.

Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston is under a Tropical Storm Warning and is actually on the very western edge of where the Hurricane Warning begins for the Gulf Coast.

At 8 a.m. EDT Hurricane Lili was 405 miles south-southeast of New Orleans and moving to the west-northwest at 16 mph. Maximum sustained winds are near 110 mph and forecasters expect the storm will strengthen to become a Category 3 hurricane later today. Hurricane force winds extend 45 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 185 miles.

As a result, NASA officials at JSC have ordered that the space center's critical computer and communication systems be shut down in preparation for a full evacuation of the government campus. The space station control room is already shut down and control has been turned over to the NASA team located at Mission Control in Moscow. The shuttle control room is expected to be dark by noon.

Once the storm passes, and depending on the damage to the area, it will take a couple of days to get the Mission Control systems back online and configured to support the shuttle launch.

In the meantime Atlantis sits at pad 39B with the countdown clock holding at T-minus 11 hours. The launch period on Monday remains between 2 and 6 p.m. EDT.

Stay tuned to this page for updates.

Mission Control Houston to be spared as Lili turns north
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2002 at 5:45 p.m. EDT

Apparently dodging a pretty serious weather bullet, officials at the Johnson Space Center in Houston have decided not to further increase their level of storm preparedness as they are now confident Hurricane Lili is turning toward the north and will spare Mission Control.

"We intend to be open for normal business tomorrow," JSC spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said late Wednesday afternoon.

As Lili heads toward landfall Thursday on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana to the east of Houston, flight controllers will begin powering up the computer and communication systems necessary to manage shuttle and space station missions as usual.

It will take several days to re-activate everything, get it into the proper configuration and then test the systems to make sure they can safely resume supporting spaceflight operations.

The shuttle and station control rooms were shut down earlier today as a precaution in case Hurricane Lili -- now an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm -- decided to slam into the greater Houston and Galveston area of Texas.

By beginning the process Thursday to resume normal operations, Mission Control should be ready to support a launch attempt of Atlantis on Monday, Hawley said.

We will update this page again on Thursday.

A beautiful day in Houston
Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 at 2 p.m. EDT

Flight controllers at Mission Control in Houston have powered up their computers and communication systems and are working diligently to restore the Johnson Space Center to normal operations now that the threat from Hurricane Lili has passed.

In fact, Lili remained far enough to the east such that it was officially considered a beautiful day in Houston today by NASA spokeswoman Eileen Hawley.

Control of the U.S. elements of the International Space Station should be restored to Houston from Moscow overnight tonight, Hawley said.

Work to have Mission Control ready for shuttle Atlantis' trip to the multinational complex in time for launch Monday looks good as well, she said.

At the Kennedy Space Center, workers last night drained the supply of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen from Atlantis' electricity-generating fuel cell system. The system is to be re-loaded Saturday night in anticipation of a Monday launch.

We will update this page again on Friday.

Monday looking like the day
Friday, Oct. 4, 2002 at 5 p.m. EDT

On this 45th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch all systems are go for a launch of space shuttle Atlantis on Monday afternoon.

It was a very quiet day at the Kennedy Space Center today and should be the same most of the day Saturday. The flight crew have been enjoying a mostly relaxing wait for their mission, and the commander and pilot have been able to spend some time in the air screaming around in their T-38 jets.

Saturday night the launch team will get back into the swing of things by loading Atlantis' electricity-generating fuel cells with a supply of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. On Sunday they will begin activating Atlantis' communications systems.

Also on Sunday, at 2 p.m. EDT, the Mission Management Team will meet to make sure they're ready to fly again following the delay imposed by Hurricane Lili's close approach to Houston. NASA will host a press conference about 3:30 p.m. EDT to announce the launch time and set the stage for Monday's launch attempt.

So far things still look good. Weatherwise there is a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions. Isolated afternoon thunderstorms appear to be the chief concern.

We're going to take Saturday off and enjoy the nearly perfect Central Florida weather. We will update this page again on Sunday afternoon following the launch time announcement. Stay tuned.

Atlantis nearly ready to fly
Sunday, Oct. 6, 2002 at 4 p.m. EDT

A four-month hiatus in shuttle launches could end on Monday.

Senior shuttle program managers have determined Atlantis is generally ready to fly but two technical concerns must be resolved.

The first is with a line that allows the crew to dump overboard unwanted water from the electricity-generating fuel cell system inside Atlantis. A heater keeps water in that line from freezing in space, but the device that controls that heater isn't working as expected. If officials decide to replace the heater controller the launch would be delayed several more days. A decision is expected early Monday morning.

The other problem has to do with the discovery of oil contamination in ground equipment used at Edwards Air Force Base. Atlantis was potentially exposed to the oil contamination more than a year ago and has flown two missions since, so officials are confident any potential oil contaminant has been flushed from Atlantis' plumbing.

Meanwhile, Mission Control in Houston is ready to support the mission following four days of work to recover from the threat of Hurricane Lili. NASA last week had to shut down its shuttle and station control rooms as a precursor to a potential full evacuation of the Johnson Space Center.

The evacuation wasn't necessary, the control systems were restored and now Atlantis is set to fly at 3:46 p.m. EDT Monday. The launch window will be open for five minutes.

Weather looks fairly optimisitic. Officially there is an 80 percent chance of acceptable conditions, with isolated thunderstorms associated with an approaching front the main concern. Forecasts for Tuesday and Wednesday get worse each day.