One week from a planned launch to the International Space Station, six Atlantis astronauts are scheduled to enter quarantine tonight at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The veteran crew led by 45-year-old Navy Capt. Ken Ham is expected to fly into Kennedy Space Center around 7 p.m. Monday.
Launch is scheduled for 2:20 p.m. next Friday.
Weather permitting, fueling of the shuttle's external tank should begin around 5 a.m. that day. The crew would head to the launch pad at 10:30 a.m. Click here for a list of the key countdown milestones.
Tonight, the crew will take up residence in the Astronaut Quarantine Facility, also known as Building 259 at JSC. They'll continue to interact with selected trainers and family members during the week-long quarantine period.
At KSC today, launch pad teams plan to close Atlantis' payload bay doors around a Russian module and palette of spare parts being hauled to the space station. The shuttle's external tank and twin solid rocket boosters are being closed out for flight.
The 12-day mission is the last scheduled for Atlantis, and one of three remaining before NASA plans to retire the shuttle fleet.
Over the weekend, KSC plans to receive the external tank that will fly with Discovery during its last scheduled flight, targeted for Sept. 16. The tank is expected to arrive Saturday from New Orleans on the Pegasus barge, and be offloaded Monday to a bay in the Vehicle Assembly Building.
IMAGE: The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean near launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on April 22. Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller.
2 comments:
Go Atlantis!!!!!
I can't get stoked about these flights because I can't help but see the end in sight. This is so wrong, and we can't do anything about it.
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