Shuttle rollback moved to 7 a.m. Monday

A wind-stalled operation to offload hypergolic fuels from Atlantis prompted NASA today to move the planned rollback of the shuttle to first shift -- rather than overnight -- on Monday.

NASA had planned to begin to 3.5-mile move to Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building from launch pad 39A at 12:01 a.m.

High winds, however, have slowed an operation aimed at draining monomethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide from the shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering System, its Reaction Control System, its Auxiliary Power Units and the Hydraulic Power Units on its two solid rocket boosters.

Tanks that feed fuel into Atlantis' twin orbital maneuvering engines -- which are housed in hump-like pods on either side of the shuttle's vertical stabilizer -- are being drained at pad 39A today.

Now, call-to-stations is set for 3 a.m. Monday with first motion slated at 7 a.m. The shuttle is expected to be hard down in the 52-story assembly building around 2 p.m. Monday.

NASA and contractor officials say a first-shift rollback actually is more cost-efficient than bringing troops in to make an overnight move. NASA typically schedules overnight moves because it is less likely to rain, but Florida's Space Coast now is entering its dry season.

Atlantis and seven astronauts had been slated to launch this past Tuesday on NASA's fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. But the telescope's prime instrument control and data formatting unit failed Sept. 27, prompting Hubble to automatically shut down almost all science observations.

NASA is switching to a back-up instrument control and data unit. But since the upcoming mission will be the last Hubble servicing call, NASA decided to delay the flight until a spare unit can be certified for flight and delivered to KSC.

The mission now is being targeted for launch in February.