\u202c
A busy weekend is under way at NASA Kennedy Space Center\u2019s Launch Pad 39A in Florida. <\/p>\n
With space shuttle Atlantis\u2019 STS-135 mission payload now secured inside the pad\u2019s rotating service structure, the RSS was closed Saturday morning, and Atlantis’ payload bay doors are scheduled to be opened Saturday night. It’s all part of the preparations to install the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module and other payloads bound for the International Space Station into the shuttle\u2019s cargo bay on Monday.\u202c
\u202a<\/p>\n
Also on Saturday, technicians begin high-tech X-ray scans of the tops and bottoms of 50 support beams, called stringers, on the shuttle-facing side of Atlantis\u2019 external tank. The scans are expected to take about a week to complete and confirm there are no issues with the tank stringers. <\/p>\n
Technicians also begin preparations to replace a suspected leaky valve in Atlantis\u2019 space shuttle main engine No. 3. \u202a<\/p>\n
And Atlantis\u2019 four veteran astronauts are scheduled to fly in their T-38 aircraft from NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston to Kennedy on Monday. They\u2019re set to arrive at about 5:45 p.m. EDT to being their prelaunch countdown dress rehearsal, called the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT),\u00a0 and related training. Their arrival at Kennedy\u2019s Shuttle Landing Facility will be carried live on NASA TV and on the web at www.nasa.gov\/ntv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u202c
A busy weekend is under way at NASA Kennedy Space Center\u2019s Launch Pad 39A in Florida. <\/p>\n
With space shuttle Atlantis\u2019 STS-135 mission payload now secured inside the pad\u2019s rotating service structure, the RSS was closed Saturday morning, and Atlantis’ payload bay doors are scheduled to be opened Saturday night. It’s all part of the preparations to install the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module and other payloads bound for the International Space Station into the shuttle\u2019s cargo bay on Monday.\u202c
\u202a<\/p>\n
Also on Saturday, technicians begin high-tech X-ray scans of the tops and bottoms of 50 support beams, called stringers, on the shuttle-facing side of Atlantis\u2019 external tank. The scans are expected to take about a week to complete and confirm there are no issues with the tank stringers. <\/p>\n
Technicians also begin preparations to replace a suspected leaky valve in Atlantis\u2019 space shuttle main engine No. 3. \u202a<\/p>\n
And Atlantis\u2019 four veteran astronauts are scheduled to fly in their T-38 aircraft from NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston to Kennedy on Monday. They\u2019re set to arrive at about 5:45 p.m. EDT to being their prelaunch countdown dress rehearsal, called the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT),\u00a0 and related training. Their arrival at Kennedy\u2019s Shuttle Landing Facility will be carried live on NASA TV and on the web at www.nasa.gov\/ntv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":612598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shuttle-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/612598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}