Atlantis Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim, pictured left to right, receive July 4 greetings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Image Credit/NASA TV
The Atlantis astronauts arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday, saying they are eager to lift off on the historic final flight of the 30-year space shuttle program.
Commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim touched down at the Florida shuttle port shortly after 2:30 p.m., EDT, following a flight from their Johnson Space Center training base in Houston aboard a pair of NASA T-38 training jets.
The fliers were greeted on the tarmac at the Shuttle Landing Facility by NASA Launch Director Mike Leinbach, who presented each of them with an American flag in honor of the July 4th holiday.
The launching of Atlantis is scheduled for Friday at 11:26 a.m., EDT. While an official forecast from NASA has not been issued, the National Weather Service predicts a 60 percent chance of rain from thunderstorms in the Cape Canaveral area as the work week comes to a close. The mission countdown begins Tuesday.
“We are just delighted to be here. After a very arduous nine month training flow, we are thrilled to finally be here in Florida for launch week” said Ferguson. “We have a very event filled mission in front of us. When it’s all over, we will be very proud to put the right hand bookend on the space shuttle program.”
Atlantis will deliver tons of supplies to the station to ensure the orbiting science laboratory can remain staffed with six full time U. S., Russian, European, Japanese and Canadian crew members through 2012. The 12-day supply mission is intended to give NASA’s emerging commercial cargo suppliers, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., time to complete their development activities.
“We want to thank the team that processed Atlantis for her last flight,” Hurley told the runway greeting party. “We are so very proud to be here sharing out nation’s birthday with you.”
“We are the tip of a very large iceberg of people involved in getting the mission ready,” added Magnus, who thanked the mission planning and training teams as well as those involved in the launch and mission operations for their efforts. “They are great teams of people, and our mission will be a success because of them.”
“It’s such a pleasure to come down here, when there is a rocket on the pad, and it’s got your stuff loaded on it,” said Walheim.
After the flight, Atlantis will be prepared for public display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Orbiters Endeavour and Discovery completed their final flights in early June and March and are being readied for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles and the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum
The Atlantis astronauts arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday, saying they are eager to lift off on the historic final flight of the 30-year space shuttle program.
Commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim touched down at the Florida shuttle port shortly after 2:30 p.m., EDT, following a flight from their Johnson Space Center training base in Houston aboard a pair of NASA T-38 training jets.
The fliers were greeted on the tarmac at the Shuttle Landing Facility by NASA Launch Director Mike Leinbach, who presented each of them with an American flag in honor of the July 4th holiday.
The launching of Atlantis is scheduled for Friday at 11:26 a.m., EDT. While an official forecast from NASA has not been issued, the National Weather Service predicts a 60 percent chance of rain from thunderstorms in the Cape Canaveral area as the work week comes to a close. The mission countdown begins Tuesday.
“We are just delighted to be here. After a very arduous nine month training flow, we are thrilled to finally be here in Florida for launch week” said Ferguson. “We have a very event filled mission in front of us. When it’s all over, we will be very proud to put the right hand bookend on the space shuttle program.”
Atlantis will deliver tons of supplies to the station to ensure the orbiting science laboratory can remain staffed with six full time U. S., Russian, European, Japanese and Canadian crew members through 2012. The 12-day supply mission is intended to give NASA’s emerging commercial cargo suppliers, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., time to complete their development activities.
“We want to thank the team that processed Atlantis for her last flight,” Hurley told the runway greeting party. “We are so very proud to be here sharing out nation’s birthday with you.”
“We are the tip of a very large iceberg of people involved in getting the mission ready,” added Magnus, who thanked the mission planning and training teams as well as those involved in the launch and mission operations for their efforts. “They are great teams of people, and our mission will be a success because of them.”
“It’s such a pleasure to come down here, when there is a rocket on the pad, and it’s got your stuff loaded on it,” said Walheim.
- After the flight, Atlantis will be prepared for public display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Orbiters Endeavour and Discovery completed their final flights in early June and March and are being readied for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles and the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum