NASA sets shuttle Atlantis launch for Aug. 27

Cape Canaveral, Aug 16: NASA will attempt to launch space shuttle Atlantis on Aug. 27 to restart construction of the half-built International Space Station, officials of the U.S. space agency said today.

''We set the launch date for the 27th, I think it's around 4:30 in the afternoon, so we're ready to go for that,'' Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, told reporters at Cape Canaveral.

Atlantis' mission will be the first flight to resume construction of the half-built 100-billion dollar space station since the shuttle Columbia fell apart over Texas in 2003.

Two shuttle missions conducted since Columbia tested safety upgrades designed to avoid a repeat of the accident, when falling insulation foam from the external fuel tank knocked a hole in the shuttle's wing on liftoff. Superheated atmospheric gases tore into the breach two weeks later on re-entry.

Construction of the space station, meanwhile, had been on hold because the U.S. shuttles are the only spacecraft capable of carrying its larger components into orbit.

The resumption of the assembly of the orbital outpost, a multi-nation project, became possible after the safe return to Earth last month of space shuttle Discovery. Its 13-day mission had successfully tested repair techniques and ways to examine the shuttle's fragile heatshield while in space.

Reuters