Endeavor is scheduled to lift off to the International Space Station on August 7, carrying the suit of the teacher killed in the Challenger disaster, who will teach classes from space
The space shuttle Atlantis arrived on the back of a special Boeing 747 cargo plane at the Kennedy Space Center, thus officially ending mission STS-117.
Meanwhile, procedures continue for the launch of the next mission, STS-118 at the Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle Endeavor was brought into the shuttle train center for launch after being rolled out of the nearby hangar used by the shuttles. In the assembly facility, the Endeavor will be raised to a vertical position and transferred to the higher deck where it will be connected to the external fuel tank and the solid fuel boosters.
In its upcoming mission, the Endeavor will upload the S5 component to the International Space Station, where it will also fly for the first time since the Challenger disaster in 1986 a space teacher - Barbara Morgan, who was the replacement for Christa McAuliffe who was killed in the Challenger disaster. The planned launch date is August 7.
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