June 8th, 2007
Shuttle Atlantis is ready for launch
If you are in the Cape Canaveral area this evening, be on the lookout for the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
NASA: Atlantis is ready to launch - CNN.com
After a three-month delay, NASA entered the final day of a launch countdown for space shuttle Atlantis Thursday with no major technical problems looming and a forecast for promising weather. Forecasters predicted an 80 percent chance that the weather would allow NASA to launch its first space shuttle mission of the year at 7:38 p.m. ET Friday.
After a hailstorm damaged the insulating foam, NASA spend thousands of person-hours to repair the insulation, as opposed to replacing the entire tank. Some examples of the work include.
Some of the engineers and technicians worked 16-hour days devising the repairs, including mechanical engineer Glenn Lapeyronnie, who created from scratch in 10 days a 7 ½-foot tool to trim foam around the nose cone, where the tank had the most damage.
The shuttle team is launching to perform the following mission:
Seven NASA astronauts are counting down to a June launch of their STS-117 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), where they plan to install a new set of solar arrays.
It should be a spectacular show at the launch.