CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA decided to return the Atlantis shuttle to its launch pad Tuesday as Tropical Storm Ernesto appeared to no longer pose a threat to the orbiter, a spokesman said.
"We are going back to the pad," NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had canceled Tuesday`s launch and started returning Atlantis to its hangar to protect it from Ernesto.
But the storm`s winds were less intense, posing less of a threat to the shuttle, Buckingham said.
No new launch date has been set.
08/29/2006 18:55 GMT