Thu, Aug 31, 2006
No Damage Reported To Shuttle, Facilities
ANN REALTIME UPDATE 08.31.06
1330 EDT: After confirming the shuttle Atlantis successfully rode
out the worst of Tropical Storm Ernesto on launch pad 39-B, NASA
has given the go-ahead for another launch attempt next Wednesday,
September 6.
"We're back," said NASA spokesman Bill Johnson. "There was no
water intrusion in any operational areas, and so basically we came
through this one unscathed."
The launch time was set for 12:29 EDT on Wednesday. Should
Atlantis not be able to lift off then, the Associated Press reports
NASA will have two other opportunities for launch.
The six astronauts who make up the crew of STS-115 are expected
to return to Florida Saturday morning, after flying back to Houston
earlier this week as the storm approached Cape Canaveral.
Original Report
Workers are returning to Florida's Kennedy Space Center, which
had briefly closed in advance of Tropical Storm Ernesto. No damage
to facilities on Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station has been found.
The storm hit the complex late Wednesday... with peak winds of
44 mph recorded at Launch Pad 39-B, and 56 mph measured at the top
of a weather tower north of the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The space center received 4.16 inches of reain from the storm,
which is now advancing towards the coasts of the Carolinas.
As Aero-News reported earlier this
week, NASA engineers made an abrupt turnaround
Tuesday, choosing to return the space shuttle Atlantis to pad 39-B
after workers had begun to move the orbiter back to the VAB to wait
out the approaching storm. A downgraded weather forecast led to the
reversal.
It appears that gamble paid off -- as no apparent damage to
Atlantis, or to the Delta II rocket for the STEREO mission at Pad
17-B, has been found. Inspections are continuing today.
Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis is targeted for no earlier than
Wednesday, September 6.
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