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Weather an obstacle for final shuttle launch
Jul 6, 2011, 17:14 GMT
Washington - Poor weather could disrupt Friday's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, US space officials said Wednesday.
A tropical wave of clouds and possibly thunderstorms could reach Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the next couple days and force a delay of the final shuttle voyage, the officials said.
Kathy Winters, the weather official for the shuttle programme, told reporters there was a 30-per-cent chance the weather would permit a launch.
'We have a tropical wave that's out in the Caribbean,' she said. 'That wave is actually going to come into Florida along with a lot of tropical moisture that's down to the south, and it's all going to roll into Florida in the next couple of days.'
Atlantis is scheduled to take off at 1526 GMT on the last-ever shuttle flight as NASA retires the fleet.
NASA said there was a 40-per-cent chance the weather will be good enough for a launch on Saturday, with the odds rising to 60 per cent on Sunday.
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