Atlantis Almost Ready For Ferry Flight

Teams preparing space shuttle Atlantis for its cross-country trip from California to Florida are running behind their original schedule because of some minor hardware problems. But they're still aiming to depart Edwards Air Force Base this morning. Managers now will meet for a pretake-off weather briefing at 9 a.m. EDT (6 a.m. PDT) for a target departure time of 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m.) from Edwards. Technicians encountered some difficulties while trying to tighten a bolt on the right attach point for connecting Atlantis to its modified Boeing 747 aircraft. The bolt now is securely in place, and Atlantis almost is ready to begin its ferry flight back to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Weather permitting, Atlantis could be back at its Florida home Tuesday night, where space shuttle Endeavour is being prepared for its upcoming STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour was moved Sunday from Kennedy's Launch Pad 39B to Launch Pad 39A and was secured to pad A at 11:42 a.m. EDT.
Source:NASA