The Atlantis astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center for Friday's launch

STS-132 will be the last flight of the shuttle Atlantis and the third before the end of the shuttle project altogether

The six astronauts who will take off on the shuttle Atlantis for mission STS-132 to the International Space Station have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparations. The launch itself is expected to take place on Friday, May 14 at 21:20 Israel time.

The crew chief, Ken Ham, and the pilot, Tony Antonelli, performed landing maneuvers in a plane simulating the landing of the shuttle - a Galfatserim II model. The countdown began on Tuesday at four in the afternoon (23:00 Israel time).

During the 12-day flight, the astronauts in Atlantis will upload a Russian research module, sets of batteries for the dish antennas and other power-consuming components of the station, as well as other spare parts.

This will be the third flight before the closure of the shuttle project and the last to be performed on Atlantis. All the astronauts are NASA veterans, and some have already retired and returned: in addition to Hamm and Antonelli, Michael Goode, Garrett Reisman (who we already reported will carry a flag of the Israel Space University partnership), as well as Pierce Sellers and Steve Bowen are also participating in the mission.

Shuttle program manager John Shannon, the last mission of Atlantis will be particularly fascinating: "12 days, three spacewalks, tons of robotics, we are uploading spare parts that will allow the station's long-term existence, replacing old batteries and uploading a Russian module." Shannon said. "This flight is a little bit of everything and the crew prepared for it with excitement."