Lightning Scrubs Shuttle Launch

Thunderstorms forced NASA to postpone Friday’s liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis and threatened to ruin today’s launch attempt, too, keeping an American astronaut in orbit longer than planned.

Lightning made it too dangerous to pump more than a half-million gallons of fuel into the shuttle tank Friday morning. It was the first time in 14 years of shuttle flight that weather prevented NASA from fueling.

Forecasters put the chances of good weather today at just 30 percent. The outlook through Monday was just as bad.