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Cape Canaveral (AFP) Oct 03, 2002 The launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis has been postponed until Monday due to Hurricane Lili, NASA said here Wednesday. Atlantis's launch was to be the first since space shuttle flights were suspended in July after cracks were discovered in the propulsion systems of all four US shuttles. The shuttle was originally scheduled to depart Wednesday, but its launch was delayed until at least Thursday as a result of the hurricane, which is now swirling in the Gulf of Mexico and threatens Houston, Texas, where the shuttle's mission control is based. NASA officials said they expect the hurricane will have passed by Monday, making the launch possible. The time frame for Monday "is the same, between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pmand 2200 GMT)," said NASA spokesman George Diller. Power to NASA's Houston, Texas-based Johnson Space Center was to be cut off completely by midday, in preparation for Hurricane Lili's passage, NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said. Buckingham noted that control of the International Space Station "was handed over to the Houston support group in Moscow." Atlantis' 11-day mission, with a team of six astronauts aboard, is to install a 15-meter (45-foot) 390 million dollar arm on the International Space Station.
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