Atlantis Countdown Put on Hold as Winds Threaten Launch

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration counted down toward a fifth attempt to launch the space shuttle Atlantis early this morning, as clouds and high, gusting winds threatened to delay the launch a fifth time.

“It will be nip and tuck,” said Air Force Capt. Tom Strange, the shuttle weather officer. “We have to hope for a letup, but at this point we don’t see it.”

As the planned launch time of 12:55 a.m. EST approached, launch director Bob Sieck called for an extended hold.

Winds over Kennedy Space Center reached 33 m.p.h. in the opening hour of the planned launch period, which began at midnight Sunday and was to extend through 4 a.m. Unless the winds calmed as the launch period wore on, the shuttle could be grounded for the fifth time. NASA rules do not permit a launch unless wind conditions safely permit the shuttle to lift off its pad and to return and land at the space center if such an emergency measure were to become necessary.

The fifth attempt to launch the craft came after an astronaut’s cold, then foul weather, and finally a last-minute computer failure delayed the launch of the space shuttle four separate times.

Working throughout Sunday morning and afternoon, NASA engineers fixed the “Cyber B,” a back-up computer designed to ensure the safety of areas beneath the flight path. Sunday morning’s delay cost taxpayers $547,000 in labor and material expenses at Kennedy Space Center alone, since the shuttle was forced to jettison 500,000 gallons of fuel at the last minute.

The three earlier delays, which were called hours before countdowns were to have begun, cost $247,000 in added services.

The flight of Atlantis, the 34th flight of a U.S. space shuttle and the sixth shuttle flight entirely dedicated to a Defense Department mission, has a crew of five military astronauts. John O. Creighton, a Navy captain, is commanding the flight. Creighton’s scratchy throat and congestion prompted NASA to call off two earlier launch attempts. The other astronauts aboard Atlantis are Air Force Col. John H. Casper, the pilot, and mission specialists Marine Lt. Col. David C. Hilmers, Air Force Col. Richard M. Mullane and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Pierre J. Thuot.

While the Defense Department has shrouded Atlantis’ payload in secrecy, experts said that the shuttle is being used to carry a $500-million satellite called the KH-12 into space. The “keyhole” satellite would be the sixth in a constellation of U.S. craft designed to photograph and relay images of military and other installations, according to John Pike, a space expert with the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists.