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Next on the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report:

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Repairs near completion on Atlantis' external fuel tank and mission STS-117 gains a passenger for the trip home.

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And, there's a new tank in town!

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The NASA Space Shuttle Status Report starts right now.

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Music.

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

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First, technicians and engineers will soon complete repairs to Atlantis' damaged external fuel tank.

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You might remember hail from a sudden February storm peppered the external tank,

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leaving visible divots in the orange foam that coats the tank.

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That damage forced the delay of mission STS-117 so workers could fix the pockmarks using hand and spray techniques.

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The launch window for Space Shuttle Atlantis opens June 8.

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In another STS-117 mission update: After months aboard the International Space Station,

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Sunita Williams will come back to Earth aboard Atlantis.

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Sunita traveled to the station with the STS-116 crew in December.

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Atlantis will carry her successor, astronaut Clay Anderson, on mission STS-117  to begin his duty as an Expedition 15 flight engineer.

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The exchange of Anderson and Williams was originally planned for mission STS-118, now targeted for August.

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The external fuel tank for STS-118 is now at Kennedy Space Center.

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The tank arrived by barge and was offloaded, then towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building

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There it will be attached to orbiter Endeavour several weeks before launch.

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That wraps up this week's Space Shuttle Status Report. Stay connected to all of

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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 Spencer Woodward.

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