The impact of Hurricane Ike has reached out into space and delayed the planned Friday arrival of Russian cargo ship at the International Space Station.

The unmanned Russian space freighter Progress 30 was slated to arrive at the space station tomorrow at 5:01 p.m. EDT (2101 GMT), but flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston had yet to move the orbiting laboratory's expansive solar arrays into position for the docking before closing down Thursday to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ike.

"The Russians and [NASA] came to an agreement today to postpone docking until Wednesday," said John Yembrick, a NASA spokesperson at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson pledged Thursday to fast-track efforts to get congressional approval for a waiver NASA needs to get astronauts to the International Space Station after the space shuttles are retired in 2010.

"We are going to make a full, true-blue push to get (the waiver) passed," the Orlando Democrat said after emerging from a meeting with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

NASA needs the exemption to send crews aboard the Russian Soyuz vehicle beyond 2011. Otherwise, the United States has no way of reaching the $100 billion space station until the shuttle's replacement becomes available in 2015 or later.

NASA still aims to move Endeavour out to Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B this week, and it appears that the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Ike in Houston will not delay the agency's next two shuttle missions, officials said Monday.

In a widely distributed e-mail, NASA shuttle program manager John Shannon said employees whose lives have been disrupted by Ike should take care of their families first.

Many who evacuated in advance of the monster storm have not been able to return to their homes in communities that surround Johnson Space Center, which escaped major damage, but will remain closed to all but recovery crews this week.

Spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, is scheduled to launch on October 12 with the Expedition 18 crew. He plans to take part in several Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) activities while onboard the ISS. His activities include speaking with children at Challenger Learning Centers throughout the U.S. He mentioned his radio training in his recent blog. See: http://www.richardinspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.welcome&theyear=...