Atlantis astronauts arrive at KSC for training

The six member, all male Atlantis crew arrived for training at Kennedy Space Center about 6:15 p.m. aboard four T-38 airplanes.

Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Piers Sellers and Steve Bowen - will stay at KSC until April 23rd.

"We are all excited to be here because we get to go in three weeks and a few days," Ham said.

Their scheduled launch date is May 14. That would likely be the last flight for Atlantis.

Meanwhile, for the second straight day the rollout of space shuttle Atlantis was called off Tuesday due to weather.

Atlantis was scheduled to leave the Vehicle Assembly Building at 6 p.m. Tuesday for the 3.4 mile crawl to launch pad 39A.

At 5:30 p.m. clouds were starting to roll in at KSC. Weather officials determined lightning would likely be in the area at some point during the six hours it would take Atlantis to get to the launch pad.

Crews will try again at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Ham said the astronauts plan to be on hand Wednesday morning when Atlantis makes the six hour trip to the launch pad atop the space center's giant crawler-transporter

"We're going to wake up early in the morning and hopefully get some time riding the crawler out there, which I know some of us haven't done before," he said. "That's one of the cooler things you can do in life is ride a crawler, which is like a battle ship on the ground."

Image: Atlantis astronauts arriving at Kennedy Space Center for training. The six member crew flew in aboard T-38 airplanes. Credit: NASA