NASA Managers had a meeting today at 5:30 A.M. to make sure that weather conditions created by Tropical Storm Hanna will allow rolling Atlantis to its launch pad. Hanna was expected to pass close to the Florida shuttle port Thursday as the storm followed a northerly track from the North Atlantic Ocean toward Georgia and South Carolina. The delay was intended to provide NASA more time to assess Hanna's threat to Central Florida.

Atlantis was scheduled for an October 8 launch for an 11 day mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope before Hurricane Gustav and this burst of new tropical storm activity that includes Hanna and Ike began.

Endeavour was also programmed to liftoff on November 10 on an assembly mission to the international space station. But they are reserved about the fulfillment of this launch as well.

The Kennedy Space Center in Florida is under Hurricane Condition Four, the lowest hurricane alert level. "If it wasn't for the storms, we'd be ready to roll out to the launch pad now," Kennedy Space Center spokesman Allard Beutel said. "We're going to protect all our options."

In other words Space Shuttle Atlantis was carried earlier today from its massive hangar to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. They expected it to be on her marks as early as 12:01 A.M.

The Stennis Space Center in Louisiana Mississippi and NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility east of New Orleans are two Gulf Coast installations that are essential for space shuttle activities. They suffered severe damage during Hurricane Katrina three years ago, that’s why NASA is being so careful now.