NASA readies a shuttle for rescue, just in case

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — In an unprecedented step, a space shuttle was moved to the launch pad Friday for a trip NASA hopes it will never make -- a rescue mission.

The shuttle Endeavour is on standby in case the seven astronauts on Atlantis next month need a safer ride home. Atlantis is headed for one last repair job on the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope.

The venture was canceled when first proposed a few years ago because it was considered too dangerous.

The risk is this: If Atlantis incurs serious damage during launch or in flight, the astronauts will not be at the International Space Station, where they could take refuge for weeks while awaiting a ride home. They would be stranded on their spacecraft at the Hubble, where NASA estimates they could stay alive for 25 days -- until their air ran out.

Endeavour and four more astronauts would need to blast off on a rescue flight as soon as NASA determined Atlantis was too damaged to fly home.

On Friday, Endeavour was parked at its launch pad a mile from where Atlantis is tentatively set to lift off Oct. 10.

Scott Altman, Atlantis’ commander, said it may seem like overkill, but having a rescue ship on the pad is the right thing to do.

“It’s kind of a belt-and-suspenders approach. But if you need the belt after your suspenders fail, you would be glad you had it,” Altman said.