NASA gets second shot at launching space shuttle

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA hopes to take a second shot at launching the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis next week after a lightning strike and threatening weather derailed plans for an August mission to resume construction of the International Space Station.

Hopes of a liftoff before the end of Atlantis’ launch window on September 7 were rekindled after one-time Hurricane Ernesto wilted on its approach to Florida.

The U.S. space agency also won a potential third day for the launch attempt after its Russian partners agreed to delay a resupply mission to the $100 billion space station by a Soyuz rocket.

"We had no damage. Zero. Nada," said Kennedy Space Center spokesman Bruce Buckingham on Thursday, after Ernesto left Florida’s Atlantic coast and headed north.

"We fully anticipate being ready to go as early as September 6," Buckingham said.

A final decision was expected later on Thursday but launch pad technicians had already begun reattaching equipment needed to prepare the shuttle for launch.

While Kennedy Space Center in Florida had been hunkering down for the storm, NASA colleagues at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, worked out an agreement with Russian space officials that will give the shuttle an extra day for a launch attempt if needed.

Under the deal, the next launch of a Soyuz rocket to the space station will take place on September 18, not September 14.

"The launch was postponed earlier today because there are still hopes that the shuttle will fly to the ISS (International Space Station) first, around September 6-8," a Russian space industry source told Reuters.

"The shuttle is to take a large amount of cargo to orbit. U.S. shuttles and Soyuz spaceships with crews cannot be docked at the ISS at the same time."

By agreeing to end the shuttle’s planned visit to the space station on September 17, even if more work remained to be done, NASA will have September 8, in addition to the previous two days, for launch attempts, said Johnson Space Center spokesman Rob Navias.

Russia needs to launch its Soyuz capsule with the next space station crew by September 18 to ensure the returning crew can land back on Earth during daylight, and before the capsule currently aboard the station exceeds its design lifetime.

Atlantis’ mission will be NASA’s first to resume construction of the orbital complex since before the 2003 Columbia disaster, in which seven astronauts died when their ship fell apart over Texas.

Two shuttle missions since Columbia tested safety upgrades aimed at avoiding a repeat of the accident.

Atlantis will be carrying a $372 million truss segment that contains a second pair of power-producing solar arrays and a rotary joint to keep the panels tracking the sun.

NASA needs to complete assembly of the half-built station before the shuttles are retired in 2010.

(Additional reporting by Moscow bureau)