Launch plans for space shuttle Atlantis on hold

Cape Canaveral (Fla.), Aug 27: NASA technicians planned to carry out additional tests today to check whether space shuttle Atlantis was damaged by a lightning strike at the launch pad and the agency said the ship's launch would likely be delayed at least until Tuesday.

Managers debated overnight whether the shuttle's twin solid rocket boosters could have been affected by a huge bolt of lightning that hit the Florida launch pad Friday afternoon.

''They're looking to see if the solid rocket boosters got a high voltage or currents from the strike,'' spokesman Allard Buetel said today. ''Given the extra time they're going to use for additional analysis, we most likely are not going to be able to make a Monday launch.'' Hurricane Ernesto could also be a concern. The most likely path of the storm, which was moving through the Caribbean Sea south of Haiti today, could take it ashore on the west coast of Florida near Tampa and across the state north of Cape Canaveral on Thursday.

After a late-night meeting that ran past midnight, shuttle managers decided to use the day to collect more information and meet again in the evening to determine if a full check of the boosters was needed. That would delay Atlantis' launch until late in the week.

Liftoff had been set for today but was delayed yesterday for at least 24 hours for the lightning strike assessment.

The shuttle's six astronauts are scheduled to spend 11 days in orbit to deliver and install a 35,000-pound power module to the International Space Station.

It would be the first station assembly mission in nearly four years and follows a successful mission of shuttle Discovery last month to assess safety upgrades made after the 2003 shuttle Columbia disaster.

The concern with the shuttle's boosters, the only system that was not powered on at the time of the lightning strike, centers around its many ordnance devices, all of which rely on electronic signals to work.

While lightning strikes are far from unusual in central Florida particularly in the summer, the bolt that hit the shuttle's launch pad on Friday was the largest ever recorded at the Kennedy Space Center.

The complex has a lightning protection system, which spared the shuttle a direct hit. But engineers were studying potential problems with an electronic device and ordnance on a hydrogen vent line that is part of ground support equipment.

The Atlantis mission is a critical part of NASA's efforts to finish building the International Space Station before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

REUTERS