Shuttle Atlantis Rollout Likely Saturday

Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to delay the rollout of Atlantis to its launch pad until Saturday, though officials say the shuttle is ready to move as early as Thursday morning if the storm veers away from Central Florida.

A Saturday rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building would leave only one day's cushion for a planned Oct. 8 launch date, which could be pushed back if additional storms approach Kennedy Space Center.

The Oct. 8 date already allows no unforeseen delays in processing of the shuttle's payload, which includes scientific instruments and tools for the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

A firm launch date will be selected at a flight readiness review in about three weeks.

"If it wasn't for the storms, we'd be ready to roll out to the launch pad now," said KSC spokesman Allard Beutel. "We're going to protect all our options."

Hanna is the second storm to delay the shuttle's exit from the assembly building. The rollout was planned for Aug. 25 before Tropical Storm Fay drenched the area.

Beutel said the delays have not affected preparations of shuttle Endeavour, which will be ready for use as a rescue vehicle if Atlantis encounters problems.

If Hanna poses no threat, Atlantis could ride the 5.5-million pound "crawler" that carries it to the launch complex as early as 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

But based on National Hurricane Center forecasts Tuesday afternoon, which showed the storm passing east of the spaceport at hurricane strength by Thursday or Friday, Saturday was considered more likely.

The seven-member crew of Atlantis, expected to arrive in Brevard County on Sept. 21, will carry out the 10th-to-last shuttle mission before the fleet of three orbiters is retired in September 2010.

To meet that deadline, NASA hopes to launch Atlantis and Endeavour - on a mission to outfit the International Space Station - before Nov. 25.

NOTE ON IMAGES: Click to enlarge the image above, showing the dark water of the turn basin at NASA's Kennedy Space Center mirroring the night lights and the Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Control Center, silhouetted against the post-sunset sky. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett. Below, click to enlarge the latest projected path for Tropical Storm Hanna. It was issued at 2 p.m. today by the National Hurricane Center in Miami.