Weather a wild card as Atlantis readies for final shuttle launch

Despite a good chance of thunderstorms, Atlantis is powered and ready to take off Friday morning in the last mission of America for 30 years the program of the Space Shuttle.

The latest launch of a space shuttle is scheduled for 11:26 ET.

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The crew donned their orange jumpsuit and left the launch pad 39A at 7:36

Thousands of people, among them those who came to the Kennedy Space Center three decades ago for the first launch, gathered to watch. Nearly one million are expected to be on hand to witness the historic event.

But it's summer in Florida and the weather remains a wild card.

Severe thunderstorms Thursday led teams of NASA to carry out checks on Atlantis. NASA said the shuttle escaped damage in two lightning strikes.

A bolt from a thunderstorm struck a tower 515 feet of water from the keyboard, the second hit the nearby beach, the space agency said in a statement.

Showers were on the radar again for Friday, but breaks in the clouds increased hopes for a Friday launch.

"We have a shot to date," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach said after a weather briefing, according to a tweet from NASA.

The final mission will take four astronauts, all veterans of shuttle in space for 12 days, where they will deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

After the Apollo space program put a man on the moon in 1969, President Richard Nixon ordered the space shuttle program in 1972.