The mostly-aluminum truss being called the "backbone of the Space Station" was to have flown aboard NASA's Super Guppy cargo plane Tuesday, but thunderstorms between Alabama and Florida forced project managers to postpone the trip for at least one day.

Engineers at Marshall have been testing and installing hardware on the 31,000-pound, 45-foot long truss since February and have declared it ready for flight.

In October 2000, a space shuttle will carry the Boeing-built structure into space and attach it to the ISS.

After assembly in orbit, the truss will stretch the length of a football field and support the stations solar power array and other hardware.