The Atlantis astronauts are headed out to launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center the countdown to a scheduled 2:45 p.m. liftoff continues without significant problems.
Mission commander Stephen Frick and his crew boarded the NASA AstroVan outside the KSC Operations & Checkout Building at 10:55 a.m. and now are making the 12-mile trip to the seaside launch complex.
NASA Chief Astronaut Steve Lindsey will be dropped off so that he can go to the Shuttle Landing Facility and fly weather reconnaissance in a T-38 training jet and then a Shuttle Training Aircraft.
The latter is a Gulfstream II modified to mimick the shuttle's bricklike plunge to the runway, which is seven times steeper than that of a commercial aircraft. Lindsey will be scouting the weather around Cape Canaveral to make certain the astronauts could see the runway in the event of an emergency landing after launch.
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