NASA starts countdown for space shuttle launch

Cape Canaveral (Fla), June 6: The countdown clock began ticking for the planned launch this week of the US space shuttle Atlantis, which will return the beleaguered shuttle program to space after a six-month hiatus.

The shuttle, which will be delivering a new solar power wing to the International Space Station after it takes off on Friday evening, was originally scheduled to fly in mid-March.

But two weeks before blast-off the spaceship's fuel tank was damaged during a hailstorm that passed over the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

''Whenever you're ready to go and you have to stop and wait for a few months it's a bit of a disappointment,'' Steve Payne, a NASA shuttle manager, said at a news conference.

''But once you spool back up and everything's ready, and it looks like everything's falling into place nicely, the team's really excited and we're ready to get off the ground.'' The three-day launch countdown began at 9 p m local time today launch is targeted for 7:38 p m local time on Friday and forecasters were predicting a 70 per cent chance that the weather conditions then would be acceptable.

Atlantis is scheduled to spend at least 11 days in space outfitting the International Space station with a new solar energy wing and retracting an old solar panel that will be relocated to another part of the complex.

Because astronauts on the last shuttle mission in December had such a hard time retracting an identical panel, Atlantis will be stocked with additional fuel and supplies to stay in orbit an extra day or two if the task proves difficult again.

The US space agency needs to fly at least 13 more shuttle missions to the orbital outpost to finish its assembly before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

Two space station resupply missions as well as a servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope are also planned. The shuttles are the only space vehicles capable of delivering the larger components of the 0 billion space station, a project of 16 nations.

Reuters

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