It was a busy weekend at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where space shuttle Atlantis is being readied for liftoff at Launch Pad 39A. Saturday morning, the six STS-132 astronauts completed a countdown dress rehearsal, concluding the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. They departed Kennedy afterward, taking off in T-38 jets and flying home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The STS-132 mission payload — an Integrated Cargo Carrier and a Russian-built Mini Research Module — was installed in the shuttle’s cargo bay Sunday.
Today, technicians will hook up the quick disconnects for Atlantis’s two solid rocket boosters. The flight crew will take care of administrative tasks and media interviews in Houston.