Next on the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report:
Repairs near completion on Atlantis' external fuel tank and mission STS-117 gains a passenger for the trip home.
And, there's a new tank in town!
The NASA Space Shuttle Status Report starts right now.
Music.
I'm Spencer Woodward, NASA test director, and this is the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report.
First, technicians and engineers will soon complete repairs to Atlantis' damaged external fuel tank.
You might remember hail from a sudden February storm peppered the external tank,
leaving visible divots in the orange foam that coats the tank.
That damage forced the delay of mission STS-117 so workers could fix the pockmarks using hand and spray techniques.
The launch window for Space Shuttle Atlantis opens June 8.
In another STS-117 mission update: After months aboard the International Space Station,
Sunita Williams will come back to Earth aboard Atlantis.
Sunita traveled to the station with the STS-116 crew in December.
Atlantis will carry her successor, astronaut Clay Anderson, on mission STS-117 to begin his duty as an Expedition 15 flight engineer.
The exchange of Anderson and Williams was originally planned for mission STS-118, now targeted for August.
The external fuel tank for STS-118 is now at Kennedy Space Center.
The tank arrived by barge and was offloaded, then towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building
There it will be attached to orbiter Endeavour several weeks before launch.
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 Spencer Woodward.