Next on the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report:
Endeavour is ready to fly and standing at the pad after four-and-a-half years on the ground.
Atlantis completes a successful mission to the International Space Station
and makes a picture-perfect touchdown!
Plus, Discovery waits in the wings for its turn to fly again this year.
The NASA Space Shuttle Status Report starts right now.
Music.
I'm Jeremy Graeber and this is the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report.
New this week: NASA is just weeks away from launching Space Shuttle Endeavour
on mission STS-118 to the International Space Station.
Endeavour arrived at Launch Pad 39A early on July 11th after an overnight rollout from the
Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-118 payload -
including the S5 truss, SPACEHAB module and external stowage platform 3 -- was loaded into the
payload bay on July 15th from the launch pad's payload changeout room.
Endeavour's return to flight comes after a four and-a-half year down time. During its time on the ground,
crews have been busy making safety upgrades and other modifications to the orbiter.
The STS-118 crew is commanded by Scott Kelly and piloted by Charlie Hobaugh.
Among the crew is teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, a mission specialist.
The entire crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on July 16th for a
mock countdown as part of their final preparations before launch
Launch is targeted for the evening of Aug. 7th.
<clear/ October 20th is the target date for the next launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.
Stacking of the solid rocket boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building is under way, and,
inside Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3, workers recently installed Discovery's main engines.
The shuttle's main engines create a combined maximum thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds.
An ambitious launch schedule for NASA in 2007 will conclude with a December launch for Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Atlantis touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in California on June 21st after a successful mission to the station.
Now, technicians are performing standard post-flight checkouts as the vehicle prepares to fly again.
That's all the time we have for this week's Space Shuttle Status Report,
your inside look at NASA's orbiter fleet.
For the latest mission information, check out NASA TV and nasa.gov
For the Space Shuttle Status Report, I'm Jeremy Graeber.
Music.