Ready for Liftoff

A family of Osprey are seen outside the NASA Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Thursday, May 13, 2010. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge overlaps Kennedy and provides a habitat for 330 species of birds, including the osprey. A variety of other wildlife–117 kinds of fish, 65 types of amphibians and reptiles, 31 different mammals, and 1,045 species of plants–also inhabit the refuge. The countdown is on for today’s scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians at Launch Pad 39A continue preparations for the liftoff at 2:20 p.m. EDT. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls