Monday, April 19, 2010

Atlantis heading to launchpad


UPDATE: Rollout of Atlantis didn't start as planned at 8 p.m. due to weather concerns. The next weather briefing is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to begin its slow, 3.4-mile crawl to Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center tonight.

Under the current schedule, this would be the final flight for Atlantis - and so the final time that KSC workers will get to see the orbiter roll out from the Vehicle Assembly Building toward the pad.

NASA is targeting a May 14 launch to the International Space Station. Atlantis will be carrying a crew of six, including Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Piers Sellers and Steve Bowen. They'll be delivering supplies and a Russian-built mini-research module.

Overseeing Atlantis' preparations for launch has been Flow Director Angie Brewer. For the first time, women hold all three of the NASA Flow Director positions -- a job responsible for overseeing all of the work to prepare the shuttle for a mission. Stephanie Stilson is the flow director for Discovery and Dana Hutcherson is responsible for Endeavour.

Discovery's crew got an extra day in orbit after weather prevented a landing today at KSC. The first landing attempt at KSC on Tuesday is 7:34 a.m.

About the Image: In the Vehicle Assembly Building last week, Atlantis is lowered into position over the mobile launcher platform in High Bay-1. Source: NASA

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

is this still happening tonight? I know there must be a concern with the weather...