THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT BLOG: From the Space Shuttle to Beyond

NASA / Kim Shiflett

IT’S OFFICIAL... During today’s Flight Readiness Review at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, space shuttle program managers unanimously gave the approval to launch Atlantis on flight STS-135 on July 8. So a week from this Friday, assuming the weather will cooperate that morning, NASA’s last remaining operational orbiter will blast off from Florida at 8:26 AM, Pacific Daylight Time, and head for the International Space Station (ISS) on a 12-day mission. While Atlantis will be up at the ISS, delivering a year’s worth of supplies to the orbiting outpost’s 6-member crew, work will continue on Atlantis’ now-retired sister ships Discovery and Endeavour at KSC as NASA readies them for display at their respective museums (the Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia for Discovery, and the California Science Center in downtown Los Angeles for Endeavour) next year. Visit Spaceflight Now to read about the progress being made on decommissioning Discovery before she replaces Enterprise, the prototype orbiter that is currently on exhibit at the Udvar-Hazy Center, in 2012. Enterprise will eventually be relocated to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.


Jim Grossmann