Atlantis was attached to the fuel tanks and rocket boosters

Mission STS-117 is expected to take off on March 15

Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the orange external fuel tank and two solid fuel boosters last week. The entire complex system is now on a launcher carrier, and will be transferred to launch pad 39A on February 15.

This connection serves as another milestone towards mission STS-117. Atlantis on this mission will be the first spacecraft launched after this launch in the last 4 years.

The flight of the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station has been brought forward by one day and is scheduled for March 15. During the flight, the crew members will continue assembling the space station when they will install another component to the spine of the spacecraft, dismantle a series of old solar collectors and deploy new ones on the left side of the station. The lessons learned from the two previous missions led NASA to try new tools and techniques on this mission.

The Atlantis crew includes commander Frederik Strukov - who has flown twice into space, while Lee Arbachemault will be the shuttle's lieutenant and pilot on his first space flight. Astronauts James Reilly (2 flights), Patrick Forster (XNUMX flight), Steven Swanson and John Olivas will also participate in their first flight.

To the shuttles page on the NASA website from where the news was taken