Live At NASA: Atlantis Set For 10:55 AM Departure

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Blogger Update 11:02 a.m.: The 747 and Atlantis are taxiing for take-off at Edwards Air Force Base.

The orbiter Atlantis is scheduled to depart Edwards Air Force Base in California at 10:55 a.m. EDT and then head toward Fort Bliss at Biggs Army Airfield near El Paso, Texas.

NASA contractor technicians mounted the 122-foot-long spaceship atop a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet Sunday and was scheduled to depart at first light today. Technicians, however, had difficulty with one of the bolts that holds the spacecraft onto the carrier aircraft.

You can track the flight by clicking the aircraft's tail number here: NASA911. And be sure to refresh this page for periodic updates.

Click here to see an interactive FLORIDA TODAY graphic showing the basics of a ferry flight.

Atlantis is scheduled to arrive at the Texas air base around 12:52 p.m. EDT.

The 1-hour, 57-minute flight is the first leg of a two-day crosscountry trip back to Kennedy Space Center, where the shuttle launched May 11 on NASA's fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Three consecutive days of stormy weather in central Florida forced NASA to divert Atlantis to Runway 22 at Edwards.

The earliest Atlantis would be back on Florida's Space Coast is Tuesday evening. Weather permitting, the 747 pilot might fly Atlantis over Space Coast beaches between Patrick Air Force Base and the shuttle runway at KSC.

IMAGE: Space shuttle Atlantis and its modified 747 carrier aircraft on the back ramp at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center prior to departing for Kennedy Space Center on June 1. (NASA Photo / Monroe Conner)