Shuttle Atlantis prepares to rocket into history
WASHINGTON — The shuttle Atlantis is poised to launch Friday on the final flight of the 30-year American program, a journey that marks the end of an era of US dominance…
WASHINGTON — The shuttle Atlantis is poised to launch Friday on the final flight of the 30-year American program, a journey that marks the end of an era of US dominance in human space exploration.The liftoff is scheduled for July 8 at 11:26 am (1526 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Cape Canaveral, sending Atlantis on a 12-day mission to the International Space Station.Four American astronauts will ride the shuttle on its last tour of duty to stock the orbiting research outpost with plenty of supplies -- 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms) worth in all -- and bring back a failed ammonia pump, NASA said.Up to a million people are expected to turn out along Florida's Atlantic Coast to watch the 135th and final shuttle launch, an estimate between two and three times the typical crowd size, local officials said."The space shuttle has been very good to this country. It is an incredible ship that is difficult to let go," said retiring NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, who just finished commanding Endeavour's last flight in May.Kelly and NASA administrator Charles Bolden spoke to reporters in Washington on Friday about their memories of the shuttle program, and what lies ahead as private industries hustle to build a next-generation space capsule."Some of my best friends died flying on the shuttle and I am not about to let human spaceflight go away on my watch," said Bolden, who grew tearful as he remembered the 14 people who died in the Challenger and Columbia disasters.The Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch in 1986, and Columbia broke apart on its way back to Earth in 2003. Technical failures and problems in NASA's workforce culture were blamed for the safety breaches."We are not ending human spaceflight. We are recommitting ourselves to it and taking necessary and difficult steps today to ensure America's preeminence in human space exploration for years to come," Bolden said.The shuttle has toted heavy loads of equipment to the space lab and back many times over the years, building up what Bolden called
last modification 2011-07-03 21:00:14
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