Astronauts board space shuttle for Florida launch

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA prepared to launch the space shuttle Atlantis on Thursday on a mission to deliver Europe's first permanent space laboratory to the International Space Station.

Five American and two European astronauts climbed aboard Atlantis, hoping to beat approaching bad weather and launch at 2:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, positioning the shuttle for arrival at the space station on Saturday.

Technical problems that delayed the flight from December have been resolved, leaving only the weather as a possible show-stopper, NASA officials said.

The U.S. space agency's weather experts offered only a 30 percent chance of a launch as a cold front that spawned killer tornadoes in the southeastern United States headed toward central Florida.

The front was expected to have lost much of its strength by the time it reaches the Cape Canaveral area, but meteorologists said it could bring rain, clouds and perhaps thunderstorms.

"We are hopeful that the front will time its approach just to the north and give us a slight break in the clouds prior to our 2:45 launch time," launch commentator George Diller said.

Earlier Thursday, the shuttle's fuel tank was filled with 500,000 gallons (1.9 million litres) of supercold propellants for the 8 1/2-minute ride to space.

As Atlantis was readied for launch, a Russian cargo ship slipped into a docking port at the space station with food, fuel, water and other supplies for the crew.