Technicians are completing the careful and complex connecting tasks to complete the stacking of space shuttle Atlantis before next week’s rollout to Launch Pad 39A. The work includes attaching the umbilicals from the mobile launcher platform to the aft section of Atlantis. The umbilicals have many system connections to the shuttle, and also pipe liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen through the shuttle into the external fuel tank before launch. The connections pull away from the shuttle at liftoff.
After the work is completed, an interface test will be conducted throughout the weekend to make sure the connections between the shuttle, external tank and two solid rocket boosters are set properly. Rollout for the STS-129 mission remains scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.
The astronauts of STS-129 are completing two days of equipment reviews related to the items they will use during their mission to the International Space Station.
On the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Nicole Stott is expected to make the first official run on the COLBERT treadmill, the exercise device named for Comedy Central comedian Stephen Colbert.