The space shuttle Discovery heads to the top of launch pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida in June 2005.(AFP photo)

      BEIJING, July 8 -- NASA's weather officers are carefully tracking the approach of Hurricane Dennis heading toward the Gulf Coast to decide whether to delay Discovery's scheduled Wednesday liftoff on the first mission since the Columbia tragedy. 

    Shuttle managers decided Thursday evening to begin initial preparations to move Discovery from its Kennedy Space Center launchpad to the safety of a hangar, as the hurricane increased in intensity and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico and Florida's southern tip.

    A final call on whether to haul the shuttle back to its hangar and postpone its flight by at least a week was expected Friday afternoon, according to an AP report.

    If Dennis moved toward the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Florida Peninsula, the preparations could be stopped without affecting plans for next week's liftoff, the space agency said.

    Any precautionary work for a move off the pad will not jeopardize Wednesday's targeted launch, if managers decide to keep Discovery where it is, said NASA spokesman George Diller.

    Still well south of Miami, the storm's winds measured 135 mph late Thursday. Dennis posed a potential threat from Louisiana to Florida, the National Weather Service said.

    Shuttle managers want the 4.5 million-pound spacecraft off the launchpad before winds reach 46 mph at the shuttle port on Florida's central Atlantic Coast.

    If NASA decides to move the shuttle, Discovery would be back in its hangar by 4 a.m. CDT Saturday, before Dennis' winds reached the area. Enditem

(Agencies)