Winds crossing the runway on which the shuttle would land in case of emergency following lift-off exceeded the allowable rate of 15 knots, a NASA spokesman said.

The launch has been tentatively pushed back one day, although weather forecasts for Tuesday are very poor, and Wednesday's forecast looks more promising, the spokesman said.

The shuttle is to take seven astronauts to the International Space Station to prepare it to be joined to the Russian service module Zvezda in July, and to load it with equipment for use by crews arriving later in the year.

After a lift-off of about eight minutes, the shuttle is reach the space station in two days and dock at an altitude of 300 kilometers (186 miles).

The mission will feature a six-hour space walk in which two astronauts, Jeffrey Williams and James Voss, are to install a crane and security rails to the exterior of the station, repair an antenna, and lock down another crane that was not properly attached during a mission last June.

Members of the team, which includes Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev and two women, will then enter the space station through an airlock to make repairs and leave about a tonne of material on board for use by future missions.

Assembled in December 1998, the space station comprises two modules -- a US section known as Unity, and the Russian module Zarya.

The most urgent task for the Atlantis crew will be replacing four of the Russian module Zarya's six batteries.

They will also install printers for computers, smoke detectors, and ventilators aboard Zarya, where members of an earlier mission had experienced nausea due to poor air circulation.

Astronauts will load the space station with equipment and clothing for the station's first permanent crew, expected to arrive in the last quarter of the year.

Among other items the astronauts will take to the station is a treadmill for exercises to combat the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

Atlantis will also move the space station's orbit 30 kilometers further from the earth, repositioning it for the docking of the Russian service module Zvezda, scheduled for July.

This mission is "extremely important" as it will provide "sustaining support for the crews living in the station for the years to come," Valeri Alaverdov, the first deputy general director of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, said Saturday.

Work on the project has been on hold for some time, after a delay in launching the Russian service module Zvezda.

Shuttle and ISS Portal At NASA

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005
The successful launch Thursday of India's heaviest satellite from spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana may have boosted the country's space research efforts to yet another level, but it has also lifted the spirits of at least three Direct-To-Home televisions broadcasters, one of which has been waiting for years to launch its services in India.