Countdown Gets Underway For Launch

(Cape Canaveral, FL) -- The countdown is underway for Friday's scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. NASA says there's a 70-percent chance of favorable weather when the shuttle is scheduled to blast off at 7:38 p.m., Eastern time. Atlantis is scheduled for an eleven-day assembly mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff was delayed for three months after a hail storm damaged the shuttle's external fuel tank as it sat on the launch pad.