CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla.
- The seven astronauts to launch aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis this week
arrived at their seaside spaceport Monday as they prepare to haul a European
laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS).
Shuttle commander
Stephen Frick and his fellow crewmates touched down on a sunny runway here
at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) as NASA prepares
to begin counting down to their Thursday launch toward the ISS.
"We hope it
stays like this all week long to have our chance of launching Atlantis on
Thursday and bringing the Columbus
module up to the International Space Station," Frick told reporters on the
tarmac.
Frick and
his STS-122 mission crew are slated to launch Dec. 6 at 4:31 p.m. EST (2131
GMT) from Pad 39A to deliver the European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus lab. Current
forecasts predict an 80 percent chance of favorable weather conditions at
liftoff.
"We flew by
Atlantis out at Launch Pad 39A on the way in and it's a beautiful sight," said
shuttle pilot Alan Poindexter, thanking the teams of engineers and technicians
who readied the orbiter for flight. "We'll take good care of Atlantis, but it's
really their ship and we appreciate them loaning it to us for a couple of weeks."
Frick,
Poindexter and their five crewmates expect to perform at least three spacewalks
at the ISS to install Columbus
during their planned
11-day mission. They will also swap out one member of the station's
Expedition 16 crew and upgrade the outpost's exterior.
Mission
specialists Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Stanley Love
and ESA astronauts Hans Schlegel, of Germany,
and Leopold Eyharts of France will launch aboard Atlantis
with Frick and Poindexter.
"I feel very honored to be a member of this crew who will bring up Columbus, for Europe,
into space," Schlegel said.
NASA
officials said shuttle engineers completed repairs today to three small dings
on Atlantis' foam covered fuel tank. The damaged areas, which sat, on the
curving nose of 15-story tank above the shuttle's perch, resembled shallow,
thin knife cuts with the longest running just over 2 inches (5 centimeters) in
length.
The damage
was discovered Friday and repaired in stages, and should not impact plans for
Thursday's planned launch, mission managers said.
"It's just
a really great time and we thank everyone for helping us get ready," Melvin
said.
NASA
will broadcast Atlantis' STS-122 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's STS-122 mission coverage and live NASA TV feed.
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