Posted 8/29/2006 05:24:00 PM by Douglas

Like a high school girl yet to discover tampons, Atlantis is off the pad, on the pad, off the pad, and then finally back on the pad:

When the space shuttle Atlantis had completed about three-quarters of its journey from the launch pad to the Vehicle Assembly Building, NASA leaders changed their mind and decided to send it back to the pad on Tuesday afternoon.

NASA went right down to the wire on Tuesday morning before making a last-minute decision to remove the shuttle Atlantis from the launch pad.

After the decision was made to roll the shuttle back, the six members of the STS-115 crew left the Kennedy Space Center in their T-38s at about 10:40 a.m., NASA said.

But at about 2:45 p.m., mission managers decided that the shuttle will be able to handle Tropical Storm Ernesto's predicted winds and they stopped the crawler that was transporting the shuttle, reported WESH 2 News space specialist Dan Billow.

The most recent hurricane advisory is predicting winds of about 45 mph at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA managers said the shuttle can tolerate those wind speeds.

The crawler reversed its gears and start heading back toward Launch Pad 39B.

What's worse? Being a total wuss, or being a wuss that's indecisive? Well, that depends.