WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Xinhua) -- NASA on Tuesday decided to move space shuttle Atlantis off its launch pad and back inside the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according NASA's official website.

    The decision was made due to tropical storm Ernesto's track, which is expected to cause high winds as it passes Kennedy, NASA explained. The roll back of Atlantis began at 10:05 a.m. EDT (1505GMT) Tuesday morning.

    A new launch date is not yet scheduled for Atlantis's flight, STS-115, to the International Space Station. Atlantis would require eight days of launch preparations once it was returned to the launch pad.

    Meanwhile, NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency continued to discuss the timing of Atlantis's mission and the Soyuz spacecraft, which will send the next crew to the station in September.

    The STS-115 crew will return to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to continue training as they await a new target launch date. Enditem