Foreign Weather Threatens Shuttle Launch

The weather at Kennedy Space Center should be clear for Saturday’s planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, but weather elsewhere could be a problem.

As of Wednesday, there’s a 70 percent chance the weather will be good enough in Florida for the launch, but winds and rain may cause weather problems at three emergency landing sites overseas, shuttle weather officer Ed Priselac said. One of those locations has to be clear before NASA approves the launch.

Because the shuttle will dock with the Russian space station Mir, NASA has only a seven-minute window - between 7:56 a.m. and 8:03 a.m. Saturday - to launch Atlantis on Saturday. The countdown began Wednesday morning.