NASA sets final shuttle launch date

The final shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center is targeted for Friday, July 8, NASA confirmed today.

A launch around 11:40 a.m. that day would put Atlantis on track to return to Florida around 6:15 a.m. July 20, a landing that would bring the shuttle program to a close after 135 missions.

Four astronauts will fly the final mission, a planned 12-day trip to deliver spare parts and supplies to the International Space Station.

Atlantis this week rolled from its processing hangar to KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building and was connected with an external tank and solid rocket boosters.

The assembled shuttle is expected to begin the last trip to a shuttle launch pad on the evening of May 31 and arrive early June 1, around the same time Endeavour makes its final touchdown at the spaceport.

Once Atlantis is at the pad, NASA plans to perform a tanking test around June 15 to test modifications made to the external tank. X-ray inspections of the tank will follow, and the results could impact the launch date.

An official date will be confirmed at a Flight Readiness Review on June 28.

The last shuttle crew is led by Chris Ferguson and includes pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus.

The crew is smaller than usual becuase there will be no rescue shuttle capability. If Atlantis sustained critical damage, the crew would need to remain on the station and rotate home on Soyuz spacecraft.

IMAGE: In the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, shuttle Atlantis was lowered toward the mobile launcher platform where it will be joined with its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis