Space shuttle to try launch today

Caught in a scheduling squeeze, NASA decided to try to launch space shuttle Atlantis on Friday, the U.S. space agency said on its official website.
After a meeting on Thursday afternoon, NASA managers finally decided to go for launch Friday, despite a problem with a fuel cell on the spacecraft. Replacing the fuel cell could delay any launch attempt by several weeks.

"There's more data that has to come in but right now the plan is to make a launch attempt on Friday," NASA press secretary Dean Acosta said.
Steve Poulos, shuttle orbiter projects manager, said the risk was going to be minimal.
Friday is the last launch day available before the U.S. space agency runs into a scheduling conflict with the Russian space agency. Lift-off time on Friday will be at 11:41 a.m. EDT (1541 GMT).

NASA has prepared Atlantis and a crew of six astronauts to deliver and install a $372 million solar power module to the space station with three spacewalks.
The mission will mark a resumption of construction activities at the orbital base that were suspended following the 2003 Columbia tragedy. The Atlantis mission was initially slated for launching three months after the accident. later.

The space agency hopes to fly 15 station assembly missions before the shuttle is retired in 2010.
The launch of Atlantis has already been scrubbed five times since Aug. 26, due to lightning, the advance of Tropical Storm Ernesto across Florida and the Atlantic, and a problem found two days ago in a fuel cell on the shuttle.