Atlantis crew reflects on what could be vehicle's last flight

The astronauts honored with flying Shuttle Atlantis' scheduled final flight took a few minutes to reflect on what that means.

Here's what some of them had to say.

“If this ends up being Space Shuttle Atlantis' last flight, we've got an American flag here we are honored to fly,” Pilot Tony Antonelli said holding the small flag. “This American flag flew on Atlantis' first flight.”

He called the vehicle a “fabulous ship.”

“It's a real honor to be among the 191 crew members that have flown on Atlantis,” Steve Bowen said.

Piers Sellers said Atlantis was “absolutely my favorite shuttle.”

“I hope that when she lands… she goes somewhere and gets the respect she deserves as a ship of exploration,” Sellers said.

Garrett Reisman said Atlantis has “been an amazing ship and it’s an honor to have served.”

And from Mike Good - “She’s well traveled and she’s served many of us well. We look forward to bringing her home safe and going to visit her someday on the ground. From the entire crew from STS132, thanks to all the folks who have worked on her over the years.”

With the completion of this mission, there are just two scheduled flights left before the shuttle program is retired. After returning, Atlantis will be prepared as a rescue vehicle in case the fleet's final mission runs into trouble. There is some talk about using Atlantis to fly one additional shuttle mission, but it would require an extra $600 million to $800 million.

NASA officials said there's a 50/50 chance Shuttle Atlantis will land Wednesday morning at Kennedy Space Center.

The first attempt is at 8:48 a.m. If that doesn't work, the crew will try to land again at KSC at 10:22 a.m.

If neither of those work, they’ll try again KSC on Thursday. They won’t look to the backup site in California until Friday.