Rollback of Space Shuttle Atlantis

Workers at Florida's Kennedy are starting on the grueling task of rolling back the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The move comes as no surprise after the horrible storms that have ripped through the area in the past few weeks. The orbiter has received a lot of damage due to Mother Nature's wrath, and now a launch date is unclear.

It's the most expensive storm damage to a shuttle in the history of the program. Massive chunks of ice rained down on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, as well as many other structures and property including a plane, vehicles and buildings at Kennedy Space Center. Buildings near the launch pad suffered shattered windows and hail smashed mirrors on vehicles. Officials had no idea just how sever these storm would be, and they came up so fast.

Central Florida is notorious for its sudden freak showers and thunderstorms between February and May. It's during this time that Floridians see the most active weather of the year, including Tornadic threats. It was only two weeks ago that a tornado outbreak ripped through a 70 mile stretch of Central Florida, and now this. The storms were just so random NASA had literally no time to react.

"It'll be about a month before we can talk about being back in launch posture," shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.

The trip back into the vehicle assembly building will be followed by detailed damage analysis of the shuttle's orange fuel tank and the scarred left wing. Already, documents obtained by News 13 show that extensive analysis is underway.

The bullet shaped tank was slammed by golf-ball sized hail and damaged in an estimated 7,000 places. Something falling off that tank doomed Columbia's crew four years ago, so NASA knows it can't fly a tank that's been severely compromised.

This has not been an easy year for the space agency. It didn't get the funding it wanted, its crown jewel, the shuttle, was damaged, and the image of the astronauts was scarred by the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak. All this has really put down all those that work in and around the space center. The funding was cut, and the fact that the shuttle was damaged so severely is a major blow costing the space agency a lot of time, and money. And of course the nation wide attention paid the Lisa Nowak, the astronaut turned psycho.

"It was very high profile simply because it was an astronaut who recently flew on a mission," said Sen. Byron Dorgan.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin took responsibility in a senate hearing this week and said NASA failed to recognize Lisa Nowak was troubled, but that it shouldn't reflect badly on the other astronauts, although it does put into question the types of evaluations used to determine a sound mind.

"I don't think one incident should ever be allowed to paint a picture for an entire group of people for any group, especially our astronauts," Griffin said.

Back at the space center, workers hope they can fix the shuttle's tank while it's still attached to the shuttle. If not, launch could be delayed until May or possibly later.

The shuttle got underway at 8:47 this morning and will take about six hours to get it to the vehicle assembly. The shuttle will be visible from across the river in Titusville as it travels, a interesting site to tourist visiting the area, but for long time residents and officials at NASA, it is a site of pain and despair.