NASA prepares Atlantis for launch or rescue flight

NASA would soon begin the assembly of shuttle Atlantis for a planned Aug. 28 launch. Atlantis would be launched to continue to development work on the International Space Station. Discovery is already being prepared for a launch and if some problems occur during the launch, NASA would use Atlantis as a rescue flight for the astronauts.

The preparations are due to begin this coming Friday and the timing has been developed to enable NASA to launch Atlantis on a mid-August rescue mission. NASA is scheduled to launch Discovery in the month of July.

As per the roadmap, Atlantis is to be rolled from a nearby hangar into the 52-story assembly building July 25. The crew for this mission has been selected and includes commander Brent Jett, pilot Chris Ferguson and four mission specialists: Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Canadian Steve MacLean.