NASA's Kennedy Space Center apparently avoided major damage as of Wednesday night, and the agency's next shuttle launch likely will remain on schedule.

The storm shut down the nation's shuttle homeport two consecutive days and regular operations won't resume until Friday.

But the targeted Oct. 8 launch of shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts on a fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission is expected to take place as planned.

"Right now, as far as we are able to tell, there will be no impact to the Oct. 8 launch date," KSC spokesman George Diller said

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