Weather Halts Shuttle Flight; Liftoff Rescheduled for Today

NASA resolved a last-minute technical glitch with the shuttle Atlantis, then had to call off Thursday’s launching attempt because of bad weather.

Liftoff was rescheduled for 8:02 a.m. PDT today.

It was the third delay for the satellite delivery and research mission. The first two postponements were caused by failed parts.

Launching director Bob Sieck held the countdown clock at the nine-minute mark so engineers could study a problem with one of numerous vent valves in the crew cabin. The valve, needed to maintain cabin pressure, did not appear to be closing properly.

Engineers determined that the valve was fine and that an indication switch was giving false readings. Just as mission managers cleared the shuttle for flight, the wind picked up and thunderstorms moved into the area. Sieck gave up for the day when it became apparent that the weather was going to worsen.

The five astronauts had been strapped into their cabin seats, waiting to take off, for about four hours when the scrub was announced. They were helped out about an hour later.

Forecasters expected more thunderstorms today. They put the odds of an on-time liftoff at 70%.

The high point of the voyage will be the release of a $120-million shuttle Tracking and Data Relay Satellite from Atlantis’ cargo bay. Commander John Blaha and his crew plan to release the satellite six hours into the flight.