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Hurricane Dennis

Dennis' winds may force shuttle back to hangar

CAPE CANAVERAL - Discovery is safe on its launching pad for now and NASA is still aiming for a liftoff next Wednesday, but Hurricane Dennis could force the space shuttle to return to its hangar and delay the first mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Shuttle managers decided Thursday evening to begin initial preparations to move Discovery from the pad at Kennedy Space Center, as the hurricane increased in intensity and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico and Florida's southern tip.

A final call on whether to haul the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building - and postpone its flight by at least a week - was expected this afternoon.

Dennis is expected to stay well to the west of Cape Canaveral. But NASA is worried that wind at its fringes could reach 80 mph this weekend, the limit for what the shuttle could endure at its oceanside launch pad.

Discovery already has made one trip back to the assembly building since arriving at the pad in April, to get a new external fuel tank with an extra heater. Engineers wanted the extra heater to prevent dangerous ice buildup from the super-cold fuel. The work delayed liftoff from May to July.

NASA has until the end of July to send Discovery on a flight to the international space station; otherwise it must wait until September to ensure a daylight launch.

Managers want the best possible views of Discovery at liftoff to see if any foam insulation or other debris falls off the tank and hits the shuttle, as happened during Columbia's flight.

The hole left in Columbia's wing caused the spacecraft to break up during re-entry. All seven astronauts were killed.

[Last modified July 8, 2005, 01:14:28]