Hurricane Threat Causes NASA to Delay Space Shuttle Until Next Week

With Hurricane Lili expected to make landfall along the Louisiana coast Thursday afternoon, NASA has put off the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis until no earlier than Monday, Oct. 7 so that the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston can be secured and protected from potential storm impacts.

Currently, forecasters predict the storm will take a northerly turn later today. However, one usually reliable prediction model shows a slightly more westerly landfall. This could increase the probability of winds in excess 50 knots in the Houston vicinity that would require a precautionary closure of the Johnson Space Center.

Power down of the MCC began Tuesday evening and was completed earlier this morning. Command and Control on the International Space Station was transferred to the Mission Control Center in Moscow at about 5 a.m. today.

Following the passage of the storm, controllers in Houston will begin the process of bringing up and verifying all the control systems needed to support the STS-112 mission.

During the next few days at the Kennedy Space Center, the Launch Control Team will continue to monitor the vehicle and maintain its readiness to support launch attempts next week. At Launch Pad 39-B, the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen reactants of Atlantis’ power reactant and storage distribution system will be drained tonight and reloaded on Saturday. The countdown will resume at T-30 hours on Sunday, Oct. 6, when the launch control team begins activating communications systems.

Source: NASA