The space shuttle Atlantis made its way to the launch pad early on Wednesday morning in preparation for its late August flight to the International Space Station (ISS).
Atlantis began crawling out to Pad 39B at 0105 EDT. The shuttle鈥檚 6.8-kilometre (4.2-mile) cruise aboard its crawling transporter took almost 8 hours.
Right now the launch is scheduled for 27 August, though shuttle managers will meet on Thursday to determine whether they can try to launch a day earlier. Unfortunately, Atlantis鈥檚 rollout to the pad was delayed by two days because of thunderstorms near the launch site in Florida, so there are only three extra days in the preparation schedule.
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鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 hold my breath they鈥檙e going to make a change, but they could,鈥� says Kennedy Space Center spokesman George Diller.
Atlantis and its six-person crew will journey to the space station carrying the P3/P4 segment of the space station鈥檚 backbone-like truss and that segment鈥檚 two solar arrays.
Forecasters will keep a close watch on Tropical Storm Chris out in the Atlantic Ocean. There is a 10% to 20% chance of Kennedy Space Center seeing tropical storm strength winds in the next five days. NASA will bring the shuttle back into the Vehicle Assembly Building if a hurricane or tropical storm seems like it would threaten the ship on the coastal launch pad.
