Loose Insulation May Slip Atlantis Launch

The payload for the Atlantis mission to the Hubble Space Telescope is going to be at least 24 hours later getting to Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A -- a development that likely will lead to a similar slip in an Oct. 10 target launch date.

Plans to transport the payload to the pad late Thursday are being held up because engineers and technicians discovered that insulation around new telescope batteries came loose and got caught up in a protective bagging inside a cargo bay carrier.

The carrier was removed from the canister that will transport it to the pad so the loose insulation can be cleaned up.

That work will delay the delivery to the pad by at least 24 hours. The Oct. 10 launch date likely will be pushed back to Oct. 11 or Oct. 12 as a result.

Atlantis and seven astronauts aim to install two new science instruments on NASA's flagship telescope and repair two others. Six nickel-hydrogen batteries will be flown up to replace 18-year-old originals on the observatory. The new batteries, and the installation of six new gyroscopes, should extend the operation of the telescope until 2013.

Hubble was launched from Kennedy Space Center aboard Discovery in April 1990.