NASA employees are preparing the shuttle Atlantis for its launch this coming Monday, after it has been lifted by a crane in the space shuttle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center.
The crane raised her from a horizontal position to a vertical position, a process that took almost an entire day. Yesterday she was supposed to board the vehicle that would transport her, therefore the launch there will connect the external fuel tank and the rocket boosters to her.
Atlantis is scheduled for launch on August 28 to the International Space Station. This will be the first mission since the Columbia disaster, after the two previous flights were carried out by the shuttle Discovery in July-August 2005 and July 2006.
The Atlantis mission symbolizes the return to the series of routine missions for the establishment of the International Space Station.
The shuttle will carry a two-piece steel beam and a new series of solar collectors for the station.
"It excites me personally," said heat shield tile designer Jim Assay, who works for United Space Alliance. "I persevered in my studies and tried all my life to get a job at the Kennedy Space Center. And I've been there for nine months and I've seen Discovery launch and return and now this is the first time I'm on duty on a mission, and see Atlantis do it."
The knowledge site will continue and accompany the preparations for the mission and the mission itself.
