CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA weather experts are giving the shuttle Atlantis pretty good odds – 70 percent in fact – of rocketing spaceward on Sunday, which is amazing to a meteorological layman like me after two days of strong afternoon storms near the spacecraft’s launch site.

Afternoon thunderstorms are no stranger to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch site, especially in the summer. But there was hail – no, really – in nearby Titusville yesterday and strong storms – with familiar lightning advisories – today that kept folks entrenched in the dry, cool buildings of NASA’s KSC press site.

The Atlantis shuttle remains protected atop Launch Pad 39B about three miles in the distance, its shroud-like Rotating Service Structure covering the orbiter’s sensitive bits. The shuttle’s STS-115 astronaut crew led by veteran spaceflyer Brent Jett - a fabulous name for a spaceman - arrived here earlier today for their weekend launch to deliver new solar arrays and trusses to the International Space Station.

Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters is expecting a change in the recent track of strong late-day storms, which gives Atlantis its favorable launch forecast for liftoff at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Aug. 27.

The weather forecasts for Monday and Tuesday are even better, she said, with each sporting an 80 percent chance of good launch conditions.

That’s some comfort, but I’ll keep watching the skies for good measure.