NASA plans to launch Atlantis on Wednesday

On Tuesday, NASA launch integration manager LeRoy Cain said Atlantis’ best bet for a potential liftoff ranged between Sept 6-7, the last two days in the shuttle’s flight window. A launch pad lightning strike and subsequent checks, as well as what is now Tropical Depression Ernesto, have delayed the shuttle’s launch from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

The initial launch window for Atlantis’ STS-115 mission to deliver new solar arrays and trusses to the station stretched from Aug. 27 to Sept. 13, but NASA agreed to a Sept. 7 cutoff date to avoid conflicts with a planned ISS crew swap mission aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle.