The six astronauts for space shuttle Atlantis’s STS-129 mission to the International Space Station are now at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew arrived at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility in a Shuttle Training Aircraft Gulfstream II jet at 12:35 p.m. EST.
After arriving, STS-129 Commander Charles O. Hobaugh and his crew made brief statements to the media who were gathered at the shuttle runway.
"It’s a real honor and pleasure to be here," said Hobaugh. "This has been the culmination of at least nine months of us being together as a crew … we’ve been deeply entrenched in our training, getting to develop all of our individual requirements for accomplishing our objectives for this mission."
The astronauts departed the landing strip and headed for the crew quarters of Kennedy’s Operations and Checkout Building to begin final preparations for liftoff.
The official countdown clock begins counting backwards at 1 p.m. EST tomorrow towards Monday’s 2:28 p.m. launch.
Tune in to the STS-129 countdown status briefing being aired on NASA TV and online at www.nasa.gov/ntv, scheduled for 10 a.m. EST Friday.