NASA sends shuttle back to launch pad

Peak winds should be below the danger point.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Five hours after starting space shuttle Atlantis on a slow crawl toward its hangar, NASA changed course Tuesday and sent it back to the launch pad, saying the forecast for Tropical Storm Ernesto had improved.
The change could give NASA a small window -- about a day -- to attempt a launch next week. The space agency is trying to keep to a tight schedule of flights to complete construction of the international space station.
Atlantis was almost halfway into the 12-hour journey back to the Vehicle Assembly Building aboard a giant, caterpillar-track platform when NASA reversed course Tuesday afternoon.
"The hurricane track has taken it further west, to where the winds have diminished and where we can tolerate them at the pad," said NASA spokesman Bill Johnson.
Ernesto's peak winds were expected to be less than 79 mph, the threshold at which it is mandatory to move the shuttle indoors, said NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham. Earlier, the National Hurricane Center had forecast a higher chance of such winds.
It takes eight days of preparations for liftoff once the shuttle returns to the launch pad. That means NASA has only about a day if it is to launch Atlantis by Sept. 7.
Weeks' wait
If Atlantis does not take off by then, NASA may have to wait for weeks, because a Russian spacecraft is scheduled to travel to the space station next month with two new crew members, and the orbiting outpost would be too crowded for a visit by the shuttle.
NASA is negotiating with the Russians over the launch dates of both the shuttle and the Soyuz spacecraft.
To give itself more launch opportunities in September, NASA was considering waiving a post-Columbia rule that says the space shuttle must be launched in clear daylight so that its external fuel tank can be photographed for broken-off pieces of foam like the one that doomed the shuttle in 2003.
"What I've asked the team to do is examine those reasons to see if they're still applicable," space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.
Atlantis' six astronauts flew back to Houston on Tuesday. The shuttle had originally been set to blast off last Sunday, but a lightning bolt struck the launch pad and the liftoff was postponed while engineers checked for damage.
Space station
The flight would mark the resumption of construction on the international space station, which has been on hold since the Columbia disaster 31/2 years ago.
Atlantis' main mission is to add a key 171/2-ton truss to the space station, including two solar wings that will produce power. The shuttle's six astronauts planned to make three spacewalks during the 11-day mission.
Fourteen more shuttle flights are planned through 2010.
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