NASA Green Lights June 8 Launch for Atlantis

NASA Green Lights June 8 Launch for Atlantis
The space shuttle Atlantis arrives on the hardstand on Launch Pad 39A after a six-hour trek, via the crawler-transporter, from the Vehicle Assembly Building on Feb. 15, 2007. (Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.)

NASA officials have given the green light for an early June launch of the space shuttle Atlantis to deliver new solar arrays to the International Space Station (ISS).

Atlantis is set to lift off on June 8 at 7:38 p.m. EDT (2338 GMT). The decision was made following a one and a half day Flight Readiness Review meeting by mission managers and engineers.

"We're good to go. We have no show stoppers ahead of us," said Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale during a NASA media teleconference Thursday.

The start of the 11-day STS-117 mission was originally set for March 15, but was delayed due to hail damage to the orbiter’s foam-covered external tank following a late-February storm.

"The hail storm was just a freak event," said Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "We do not expect that to happen again in the life of the program. We endured it, got through it, and are ready to go fly now."

STS-117 will see the delivery of the second and third starboard truss segments (S3/S4) and a new pair of solar arrays to the space station, which will be installed during three planned spacewalks. The STS-117 solar arrays are the third of four U.S.-built power-generating wings to launch towards the ISS before the station's planned completion in 2010.

The mission will be commanded by Frederick Sturckow. The all-male crew will also include pilot Lee Archambault, and mission specialists James Reilly II, Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson, and John Olivas.

Expedition 15/16 flight engineer Clay Anderson will also fly aboard Atlantis, and will replace Expedition 15 flight engineer Sunita Williams, who has been aboard the station since December 2006. Williams will return to Earth with the STS-117 crew.

Atlantis has a clear launch window from June 8 to 12. For every day that the launch is delayed, launch time is moved forward about 23 minutes. If the shuttle fails to launch by June 12, it will stand down for four days to allow the scheduled launch of a Lockheed Martin Atlas rocket on June 14. The next launch opportunity will then be June 17.

"We got a pretty good plan in place," Leinbach said. "Right now, if you give us four attempts in five days, we feel pretty good about getting off the ground."

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Staff Writer

Ker Than is a science writer and children's book author who joined Space.com as a Staff Writer from 2005 to 2007. Ker covered astronomy and human spaceflight while at Space.com, including space shuttle launches, and has authored three science books for kids about earthquakes, stars and black holes. Ker's work has also appeared in National Geographic, Nature News, New Scientist and Sky & Telescope, among others. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from UC Irvine and a master's degree in science journalism from New York University. Ker is currently the Director of Science Communications at Stanford University.