Six shuttle astronauts are back at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and preparing for launch less than a week
after leaving the Florida spaceport as a tropical
storm headed their way.
Led by shuttle
flight veteran Brent Jett, the STS-115 astronaut crew arrived at KSC's Shuttle
Landing Facility early Saturday in NASA T-38 jets as they prepare to rocket spaceward aboard
the Atlantis orbiter on Wednesday at 12:29 p.m. EDT (1629 GMT).
"Last
Tuesday, as the center here was preparing for Tropical
Storm Ernesto, we were flying back to Houston," Jett told reporters, adding
that they flew over Atlantis as it was hauled off its launch pad and were ready for an
extended delay. "I think all of us are really happy that just four days later
we're back here and have a shot at this launch window."
NASA will
start the countdown for Atlantis' STS-115
mission, which will deliver new
solar arrays and massive trusses to the International Space
Station (ISS), at 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on Sunday. The mission's launch
window closes on Sept. 8.
"These guys
never cease to amaze me," Jett said of the workers, engineers and mission managers
preparing their spacecraft for launch. "They're dedicated, they work hard and
they're good at what they do."
Atlantis'
flight has been delayed several times in the last week from its initial Aug. 27
liftoff. A powerful
lightning strike to the orbiter's Pad 39B launch site delayed the space
shot as engineers checked Atlantis'
launch systems for signs of damage to verify to spacecraft's health.
Ernesto passed
over KSC late Wednesday as a tropical depression, but forced NASA to close
the launch facility during the storm and conduct a series of inspections to
check for damage.
Launch
officials even hauled Atlantis off Pad 39B to shelter the spacecraft in KSC's
cavernous, 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) during the storm, though
Ernesto weakened enough to allow the shuttle to return to its launch site on
Tuesday.
"I also
promised a very good story, and the story starts with the lightning bolt that
hit the shuttle [pad], followed by Ernesto that teased us into a...dancing
shuttle two-step," said STS-115
mission specialist Steven MacLean, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut,
adding that the best bits - such as deploying the space station's new solar
wings - are yet to come. "I expect that you'll be on the edge of your seats."
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