Shuttle Atlantis heading for rain-soaked retirement delay

by Steven Mostyn - Jul 5 2011, 19:19

The space shuttle fleet’s demise, although looming large, looks as though it could be delayed by a few days due to a surge of inclement weather along the Florida coastline.

More pointedly, NASA has said that a 60 percent chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms on Friday could delay the launch of its Atlantis orbiter on mission STS-135.

“We have a 60 percent chance of KSC weather prohibiting launch,” said shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters during a news briefing at the Kennedy Space Center.

It would appear that, temporary weather delays aside, NASA is otherwise on track for the shuttle’s final historic blast-off, which is somewhat unusual considering that recent launches have been beset by technical issues.

Once it does clear its launch pad, Atlantis will embark on a 12-day maintenance run to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will deliver a year’s supplies and a number of important technical and scientific components.

If the weather does close in around Florida, the scheduled 11:21 a.m. (EDT) launch on Friday is likely to be shunted back to Saturday morning or Sunday morning.

Once Atlantis returns to Earth, it will join sister ships Endeavour and Discovery in official retirement within prominent museums across the United States.

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