The mission is a crucial step in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's goal of completing construction of the half-finished orbiting laboratory before the three-shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

The chances of meeting the September 7 launch deadline nearly evaporated when NASA pulled Atlantis off its Florida seaside launch pad early Tuesday, a move that would have threatened to delay liftoff until October.

But half-way through the shuttle's return to its Kennedy Space Center hangar, NASA ordered that Atlantis' massive mobile platform stop and reverse course back to the launch site.

Launch director Mike Leinbach expressed optimism that the shuttle could be ready for launch attempts on September 6 or 7, although no official was immediately set.

"We feel good about it," Leinbach told reporters.

A firm date depends on how soon workers can return to the spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Florida as the site was to close Wednesday due to the storm, Leinbach said.

The weather scuttled NASA's August launch attempts.

A lightning strike on the launch pad forced the cancelation of launches on Sunday and Monday to check for possible damage, none of which was found. Ernesto then forced NASA to call off Tuesday's liftoff.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has wanted to launch Atlantis by September 7 to avoid interfering with a Russian Soyuz mission.

It would have been tricky for Atlantis to be ready to launch before September 7 if it had weathered the storm inside its hangar.

It takes eight days to prepare a shuttle for launch once it is placed on its launch pad, and it was unclear if Atlantis would have been pulled out of its shelter early enough.

Facing the threat of failing to launch by September 7, NASA officials have held talks with their Russian counterparts to see if Atlantis could lift off after that date.

But there has been no word yet on whether a post-September 7 launch date was possible. The shuttle's launch window lasts until September 13.

If NASA is unable to launch in September, the next preferred launch opportunities are in late October, when two to four daylight launch attempts would be available.

NASA wants to launch the shuttle during daylight to take pictures of possible debris that could strike the orbiter during liftoff.

The Columbia accident was caused by foam insulation that peeled off the shuttle's external fuel tank and pierced its heat shield during liftoff, later dooming its return home with seven astronauts aboard.

The launch pictures would give NASA engineers more data to further improve safety during launch.

After two Discovery shuttle flights in the past two years focused on safety, NASA declared it was ready to resume construction of the station, which is key to the US drive to send humans to Mars.

Once it finally launches, Atlantis will carry six astronauts and a new 16-tonne segment with two huge solar panels that would provide a quarter of the completed station's power.

It would be the first of 16 flights planned to finish assembling the space station by 2010.

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