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Next on the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report: Time to Fly!
The crew of STS-115 has completed a final phase of training, the shuttle is at the pad and NASA
officials report Space Shuttle Atlantis is ready to fly on a mission to resume construction of the International Space Station.
Stay right where you are -- the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report starts right now!
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Hello, I'm Ted Mosteller, NASA test director, and this is the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report,
your in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at NASA's space shuttle fleet.
After a thorough flight readiness review, agency officials report Space Shuttle Atlantis
is ready to fly on the first day of a launch window that opens August 27.
The two-day review, held at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, gave flight engineers and managers a
chance to report the shuttle's readiness to agency officials.
Last week, the crew of STS-115, led by Commander Brent Jett, spent a few days at Kennedy for launch day countdown training.
It was just practice, but it looked like the real thing.
The astronauts even wore their famous launch and re-entry suits and traveled to the launch pad inside the astrovan.
At the pad, important safety training kept the astronauts busy. They learned how to operate the
slide wire baskets and how to drive the M-113 tanks in case they need to leave the launch pad in a hurry.
The crew flew back to Houston for some final flight preparations there and will return to Kennedy Space Center three days before launch.
Finally, NASA has more ways than ever for you to experience America's return to space.
Be sure to watch our pre-flight mission webcast on nasa.gov one day before launch at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.
And on launch day, you can experience the launch by watching NASA TV, a live stream of
NASA TV on the web, or by reading a moment-by-moment account of the launch with our NASA Direct launch blog.
For iPod users -- you can see the launch minutes after liftoff by subscribing to NASA's free podcasts and video podcasts at nasa.gov/Podcast.
That's all the time we have for this week's Space Shuttle Status Report. Our next report will feature mission highlights from STS-115.
For the NASA Space Shuttle Status Report, I'm Ted Mosteller.
Go, Atlantis!
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