Atlantis would be Launched on Sept 6

The six Atlantis crew members flew Saturday morning from their home base in Houston to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they will begin final launch preparations for mission STS-115.

The countdown officially begins at 8 a.m. Sunday, at the T-43 hour mark, which includes over 30 hours of built-in hold time prior to a targeted 12:29 p.m. EDT launch on Wednesday. The launch time is the middle point in the launch window that extends for 10 minutes.

Atlantis' Crew and Mission
The STS-115 crew consists of Commander Brent W. Jett Jr., Pilot Christopher J. Ferguson and Mission Specialists Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, Joseph R. Tanner, Daniel C. Burbank and Steven G. MacLean, who represents the Canadian Space Agency.

With this mission, NASA is ready to get back to building the International Space Station, marking the first time in almost four years that a space station component has been added to the orbiting outpost. That also means the shuttle program is coming up on some of the most challenging space missions ever.

During their three spacewalks, crew members of Atlantis will install the P3/P4 integrated truss and a second set of solar arrays on the space station, doubling the station's current ability to generate power from sunlight and adding 17.5 tons to its mass.



Posted by: Edwin    Source