most powerful recorded at Kennedy Space Center, hit the lightning rod atop the launch pad. As a result, on August 26 the Mission Management Team ordered the mission postponed for at least 24 hours to assess damage. On August 27, the decision was made to postpone the launch for another 24 hours, making the earliest possible launch date August 29, 2006, still unassured that there was no damage from the lightning strike and taking into account the possible threat from Hurricane Ernesto. On August 28, 2006, it was decided to postpone the launch and rollback Atlantis to the VAB after updated forecasts projected Hurricane Ernesto would regain its strength and pass closer to Kennedy Space Center than previously anticipated. NASA began rolling back the shuttle on August 29, 2006, in the late morning, but by early afternoon the decision was made to move Atlantis back to the launch pad (something that has never been done before) to weather out Tropical Storm Ernesto instead. The change came after weather forecasters determined that the storm wouldn't hit Kennedy Space Center as forcefully as they once thought. Its peak winds were expected to be less than 79 mph (126 kilometers per hour), NASA's limit for keeping the shuttle outdoors. By the early morning of August 31, 2006, the storm had passed and inspection teams began a survey for damage to the launch facilities. Only three problems were discovered, all of which were simple repairs. A target date for launch was set for September 6 with the option to launch for another two days after NASA and Russian space managers agreed to extend the launch window by one day. On the morning of September 3, 2006, the official countdown began at the T minus 43-hour mark, with about 30 hours of scheduled holds. In the early morning of September 6, 2006, engineers observed an apparent internal short when one of the three electricity producing fuel cells was powered up. When engineers couldn't figure out the problem in time, the launch was scrubbed for the day to further analyze the fuel cell problem. Late Wednesday evening NASA managers decided that they would not attempt a launch on Thursday, and scheduled the next launch attempt for September 8, 2006. Originally they had ruled out September 9 as a potential launch date due to a conflict with the planned Russian Soyuz mission Soyuz TMA-9, which was scheduled