Seven NASA
astronauts are poised to launch into orbit tonight aboard the shuttle Atlantis to
haul vital new solar arrays to the International Space Station (ISS).
Commanded
by veteran spaceflyer Rick Sturckow, Atlantis' STS-117 crew is set to rocket
spaceward at 7:38 p.m. EDT (2338 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida after months of delay.
"This
crew is very excited," Sturckow said this week of the planned space shot. "We've
spent a long time training for this mission."
Sturckow
and his STS-117 crewmates will deliver a pair of massive, girder-like truss segments
and new solar wings to the starboard side of the ISS during their planned
11-day mission.
Joining
Sturckow aboard Atlantis will be shuttle pilot Lee Archambault and mission
specialists Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson, Danny Olivas, James Reilly and
Clayton Anderson. A late addition to the STS-117 mission, Anderson will stay
aboard ISS to relieve
NASA spaceflyer Sunita Williams as a member of the outpost's
Expedition 15 crew.
Weather forecasts
predict an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions at liftoff today, though mission
managers will keep a close watch for afternoon thunderstorms anticipated around
Atlantis' Pad 39A launch site, Kathy Winters, NASA's shuttle weather officer,
has said.
Long
road to launch day
Launch day
for shuttle Atlantis comes after three months of delay prompted by a freak
hail storm that damaged the orbiter's foam-covered fuel tank in late February.
Atlantis
was on track for a planned March 15 liftoff before the hail storm struck,
etching thousands
of dents and divots into the foam insulation around the orbiter's 15-story
fuel tank. The damage delayed the STS-117 mission to allow time for engineers
to perform an unprecedented repair job.
"The
team is really pumped to get this done this time," NASA launch director Mike
Leinbach said of today's planned launch. "Team Atlantis is ready to
go."
While NASA
shuttle missions have been delayed by hail damage before, the scale of repair
work for STS-117 -- engineers studied or patched up some 4,200 areas of damage
-- outweighed those of past flights.
Bringing
the power
In addition
to the Expedition 15 astronaut swap, the STS-117 crew plans to stage at least
three spacewalks outside the ISS to install the outpost's new trusses and solar
arrays.
Weighing in
at about 17.5 tons, the $367.3 million integrated Starboard 3/Starboard 4
(S3/S4) truss segments are tipped at one end by two solar arrays that, once
unfurled next week, will have a wingspan of about 240 feet (73 meters).
The S3/S4 arrays
are the third of four U.S.-built power plants bound for the ISS and are vital
for the orbital laboratory's continued expansion. Once installed, the new solar
wings will help provide enough power to support new modules and
international laboratories scheduled for launch over the next eight months.
"What
we're doing is bringing up the starboard set of arrays," Reilly said in a
NASA interview. "[T]hat's the foundation for the power supply that will
now allow us truly to become an integrated International Space Station with the
European and the Japanese labs."
During the
STS-117 mission, shuttle and ISS astronauts will also help coax an older solar
wing into its storage boxes so its central truss segment can be moved during a
future spaceflight.
"Essentially,
we are ready for launch and are excited to get into the final throes of the
countdown," Robbie Ashley, NASA's STS-117 payload mission manager, said
Thursday. "It's an exciting time for the space station and for all of
us."
NASA
will provide live coverage of the launch of space shuttle Atlantis on NASA TV
beginning at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) today. Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission
updates and NASA TV feed.
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