A Day in History - - “SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS ARRIVES AT LAUNCH PAD”
It seems like yesterday when the space shuttle, Atlantis, safely reached its launch pad Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It had awaiteds its next major milestone for its upcoming STS-122 missions. November 18 to 20 had been the full launch dress rehearsal scheduled dates at Kennedy.
“Arriving on top of the pad at about 11:00 A.M. EST Saturday, the shuttle was on top of a giant vehicle called the crawler-transporter. Atlantis was carried out of the Kennedy’s vehicle Assembly Building by the crawler-transporter at 4:43 A.M. while traveling less than 1mph during it s3.4 mile journey. Atlantis was firmly on the pad at 11:51 A.M. when it achieved hands down.
“On December 6, Atlantis is targeted to launch on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. The European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory will be delivered by the shuttle’s seven crew members and will bring a new crew member to the station and return another crew member to earth.
“Commander Steve Frick, Pilot Alan Pointdexter, and mission specialists, Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim and Stanley Love, are Atlantis’ crew members as well as Hans Schlegal and Leopold Eyharts of the European Space Agency. Eyharts will replace current Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani. Eyharts will return to earth aboard STS-123, which is targeted to launch on February 14, 2008. Tani, aboard the Atlantis, will return to earth. He launched the station with STS-120 crew.
“A launch dress rehearsal will take place with the STS-122 astronauts and ground crews participating. It is known as the terminal countdown demonstration test or TCDT. Each shuttle crew member will have the opportunity to participate in the various simulated count down activities which the tests provide, including equipment familiarization and emergency trainings.
“The media events associated with test include: At 9:00 on November 17-STS-122 crew will arrive at 9:00 P.M. at the Shuttle Landing Facility and make a statement to be part of the NASA TV video file. On November 19 at 9:35 A.M. the STS-122 crew media will hold a question and answer session at Launch Pad 39A. On November 20th, STS-122 the Crew Walkout Photo opportunity with the astronauts, in their flight entry suits will participate in a count down demonstration test at the launch pad. They will depart from the Operations and checkout Building at 7:45 A.M. In order for the media to attend, they must pick up badges by 4:00 P.M. Friday, November 16, at the Pass & I.D. Building on State Road 405.”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Mission History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
