Next on the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report:
A sudden hail storm delays the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Orbiter Endeavour gets ready for its first educator astronaut
And Discovery gets a new improvement.
The NASA Space Shuttle Status Report starts right now.
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I'm Mark Ross, NASA test director, and this is the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is back inside NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
A sudden hail storm over Kennedy Space Center damaged the external tank on February 26
requiring Atlantis to return to the 52-story building for a closer inspection and repairs.
At a flight readiness review, mission managers unanimously decided to proceed with
the STS-117 mission, pending the necessary repairs.
The next launch window for Space Shuttle Atlantis is late April.
The STS-117 crew performed a mock countdown training exercise at Kennedy Space Center in late February.
The astronauts are now back in Houston for more training exercises in preparation for their mission.
Meanwhile, NASA is also working on preparing for several other flights this year.
One of those flights is mission STS-118 aboard orbiter Endeavour, slated to fly this summer.
Endeavour is inside Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2 where technicians have
equipped the vehicle with extensive safety modifications.
In addition, its three space shuttle main engines are in place and thermal protection tile work is nearly complete.
The Endeavour crew will continue the extraordinary task of assembling the International Space Station.
In addition to delivering the starboard 5 truss segment and the external stowage platform 3 to the station,
this will be the first time Endeavour will fly an educator astronaut, mission specialist Barbara Morgan.
An Educator Astronaut is a fully qualified astronaut with expertise in educating kindergarten through 12th grade students.
Orbiter Discovery is getting a new feature! Workers are installing the station to shuttle power transfer system on Discovery.
The system will provide extra power to the shuttle so it can stay docked to the station for longer periods of time.
Discovery is scheduled to fly this Fall.
That wraps up this week's Space Shuttle Status Report.
Stay connected to all of NASA's missions by logging on to nasa.gov or watching NASA TV.
For the Space Shuttle Status Report, I'm Mark Ross.
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