D-Bone
Jul 24th '06, 04:00 PM
NASA moved space shuttle Atlantis from its hangar on Monday to the massive Kennedy Space Center assembly building where it will be attached to a fuel tank and twin booster rockets in preparation for launch next month.
Liftoff of Atlantis and six astronauts is targeted for August 27 or 28. The flight marks NASA's return to assembly of the International Space Station following the 2003 Columbia accident.
Sister ship Discovery returned last week from a successful mission to demonstrate the fleet's remodeled fuel tank design and to repair a station transporter needed for future construction.
A large chunk of foam insulation that fell off Columbia's fuel tank during its launch in January 2003 was responsible for the ship's demise during a landing attempt 16 days later. The debris struck and broke the heat shield on Columbia's wing, leaving a breach for superheated atmospheric gases to rip the shuttle apart as it flew over Texas on February 1, 2003. Seven astronauts aboard the shuttle died.
Read More: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-07-24T203835Z_01_B809871_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPACE-SHUTTLE.xml&src=rss
Liftoff of Atlantis and six astronauts is targeted for August 27 or 28. The flight marks NASA's return to assembly of the International Space Station following the 2003 Columbia accident.
Sister ship Discovery returned last week from a successful mission to demonstrate the fleet's remodeled fuel tank design and to repair a station transporter needed for future construction.
A large chunk of foam insulation that fell off Columbia's fuel tank during its launch in January 2003 was responsible for the ship's demise during a landing attempt 16 days later. The debris struck and broke the heat shield on Columbia's wing, leaving a breach for superheated atmospheric gases to rip the shuttle apart as it flew over Texas on February 1, 2003. Seven astronauts aboard the shuttle died.
Read More: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-07-24T203835Z_01_B809871_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPACE-SHUTTLE.xml&src=rss