CAPE CANAVERAL - Shuttle Atlantis will deliver a new space suit to the International Space Station that will have interchangeable parts to make it easier to maintain or repair, NASA managers said.

Atlantis is to blast off from Kennedy Space Center early Friday morning, beginning what will be the shuttle program's 20th year and delivering the centerpiece of the $60 billion space station: the U.S. laboratory named Destiny.

The new space suit will be the first of its kind to be used.

"This is the space suit of the space station," said Kerri Knotts, lead space-walk officer for this mission. "In the future, should a component on the suit fail, we have the capability of just taking that particular piece down and changing it out as opposed to re-flying another suit."

The space station already has two Russian-made Orlan space suits. All three station inhabitants, including American Bill Shepherd, have trained to use these suits for an emergency space walk.

But the new U.S. space suit cannot be used for awhile unless a shuttle is docked to the station. That's because Russian and U.S. suits operate at different air pressures and the American suits cannot leave through the Russian airlock.