Space shuttle Atlantis is on target for a Wednesday launch, with clear skies in the forecast and the nearest tropical depression still far out in the Atlantic.
There was only a 20 percent chance that weather would prohibit the shuttle from blasting off at 12:28 p.m. (1628 GMT) Wednesday, said Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer.
Unlike last week's planned launch attempts, the window Wednesday opens before Florida's afternoon summer thunderstorms normally blow through.
"I feel better that we're launching around noontime (1600 GMT) than around 4:30 in the afternoon (2030 GMT), as we first started off trying to do,'' said launch director Mike Leinbach.
If Atlantis doesn't lift off Wednesday, NASA will try again Thursday and also Friday if necessary.
Atlantis originally was scheduled to launch Aug. 27 on a mission to resume construction of the international space station, but that launch was delayed after a lightning strike at the launch pad and then Tropical Storm Ernesto.
