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Next on the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report:

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A sudden hail storm delays the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis.

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Orbiter Endeavour gets ready for its first educator astronaut

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And Discovery gets a new improvement.

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The NASA Space Shuttle Status Report starts right now.

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Music.

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I'm Mark Ross, NASA test director, and this is the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report.

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Space Shuttle Atlantis is back inside NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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A sudden hail storm over Kennedy Space Center damaged the external tank on February 26

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requiring Atlantis to return to the 52-story building for a closer inspection and repairs.

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At a flight readiness review, mission managers unanimously decided to proceed with

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the STS-117 mission, pending the necessary repairs.

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The next launch window for Space Shuttle Atlantis is late April.

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The STS-117 crew performed a mock countdown training exercise at Kennedy Space Center in late February.

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The astronauts are now back in Houston for more training exercises in preparation for their mission.

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Meanwhile, NASA is also working on preparing for several other flights this year.

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One of those flights is mission STS-118 aboard orbiter Endeavour, slated to fly this summer.

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Endeavour is inside Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2 where technicians have

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equipped the vehicle with extensive safety modifications.

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In addition, its three space shuttle main engines are in place and thermal protection tile work is nearly complete.

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The Endeavour crew will continue the extraordinary task of assembling the International Space Station.

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In addition to delivering the starboard 5 truss segment and the external stowage platform 3 to the station,

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this will be the first time Endeavour will fly an educator astronaut, mission specialist Barbara Morgan.

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An Educator Astronaut is a fully qualified astronaut  with expertise in educating kindergarten through 12th grade students.

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Orbiter Discovery is getting a new feature! Workers are installing the station to shuttle power transfer system on Discovery.

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The system will provide extra power to the shuttle so it can stay docked to the station for longer periods of time.

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Discovery is scheduled to fly this Fall.

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That wraps up this week's Space Shuttle Status Report.

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Stay connected to all of NASA's missions by logging on to nasa.gov or watching NASA TV.

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For the Space Shuttle Status Report, I'm Mark Ross.

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Music.

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