Space Shuttle Atlantis is 'in excellent shape' & weather conditions 'pretty good' for Sunday lau

[Guest Glenn]

Source: http://tinyurl.com/eqqlk

 

Space Shuttle Atlantis is set for a 2030GMT launch on Sunday 27 August with today's launch readiness news conference expected to confirm the go for launch conclusions of the countdown status briefings held on 24 and 25 August.At the Thursday coutndown briefing Steve Payne, NASA test director described Atlantis as being in "excellent shape" following the replacement of bolts holding the Orbiter's robotic arm in place.There had been concerns the arm was not properly secured.

 

At the same briefing the agency's shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters described the predicted meteorological conditions as "pretty good" for Sunday's planned launch, with only a 30% chance that weather around Kennedy Space Center would prohibit a launch. On 25 August that percentage chance of prohibitive weather increased to 40%. Discovery's launch for mission STS-121 at the same stage had a 60% chance of prohibitive weather and it was delayed by three days.

 

The 11 day mission will see the assembly of the P3/P4 truss to install new solar panels for the International Space Station (ISS). The mission, STS-115, will see the ISS assembly sequence restarted after the 2003 Columbia disaster that saw flights halted for two years. The launch window for Atlantis is 27 September to 7 September.