NASA is aiming to launch Atlantis and six astronauts on Sept. 6 after sending the ship back to its launch pad mid-way through a move toward the shuttle's 52-story assembly building.
The agency will be closing Kennedy Space Center to all but essential personnel until Tropical Storm Ernesto passes over central Florida on Wednesday. A damage assessment team then will be sent into the spaceport, and NASA hopes to restart launch preparations on Thursday.
In that case, technicians would finish any pending work from the validation of mechanical, electrical and other connections between the shuttle and its launch pad.
Small explosive devices used to seperate the shuttle from its mobile launcher platform, twin solid rocket boosters and external tank would be reconnected on Friday. The orbiter's main propulsion system and propellant tanks that feed its 44 nose-and-tail steering jets would be pressurized that day.
A standard three-day countdown would start Sunday. Liftoff on Sept. 6 would come at 12:29 p.m.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
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