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Technicians have built a tent-like enclosure with heaters to provide warmth to pour foam over a pass-through connector installed and tested during the weekend.
"As soon at the temperature gets in the right range, they'll go ahead and pour some foam," NASA spokesman George Diller said.
Today's high was predicted to be not above 65 degrees.
The foam should be applied by the end of the week, sealing the connector. Next week normal shuttle processing will commence toward a Feb. 7 launch.
Cryogenic testing at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama confirmed suspicions that the original connector, with friction pins and sockets, failed due to being cooled by liquid Hydrogen to 423 degrees below zero.
Technicians soldered leads on the outside of the new connector, where a diagnostic test showed the circuit had been interrupted.
Atlantis is scheduled to launch Feb. 7 on a mission to the International Space Station to deliver the European Columbus module.
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