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Atlantis Postponed As Ernesto Nears
NASA is preparing to roll Atlantis off its launch pad and back inside the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building Tuesday morning to protect it from the winds of Tropical Storm Ernesto. Mission managers are still maintaining the option to leave Atlantis at the pad in the unlikely event the storm changes.
NASA's launch window extends to Sept. 13, but mission managers were hoping to launch by Sept. 7 to avoid a conflict with a Russian Soyuz rocket also bound for the International Space Station. Officials are talking with our Russian partners about the issue. Atlantis would require eight days of launch preparations once it was returned to Launch Pad 39B.
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