NASA is targeting July 8 for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, which will be the final launch before the agency's shuttle program is retired.
At this point, Atlantis is scheduled to depart Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 11:40am Eastern time on July 8. An official date will be set after a June 28 flight readiness review.
The 12-day mission will be commanded by Chris Ferguson, who flew on Atlantis in 2006 and on Endeavour in 2008. Doug Hurley will serve as pilot; he was also the pilot for a 2009 Endeavour mission. Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim, meanwhile, will be mission specialists. Magnus spent 4.5 months at the International Space Station starting in November 2008, while Walheim flew on Atlantis in 2002 and 2008.
Technicians will start moving Atlantis to the launchpad on May 31. The 3.4-mile journey will take about six hours.
Once there, there are several tests that must be completed. Technicians will fuel up the shuttle and conduct an X-ray inspection of a section of the external fuel tank. Specifically, mission manager are interested in aluminum support beams, known as stringers, located where the liquid hydrogen tank meets the intertank. Cracks in the stringers on the shuttle Discovery delayed its launch for several months, and the team wants to make sure the same thing doesn't happen on Atlantis.
The news comes several days after the space shuttle Endeavour docked at the ISS. Astronauts completed one of four spacewalks today, and will be at the station until early June. Earlier today, NASA said the ISS crew will talk to Pope Benedict at 7:11am Eastern time Saturday morning. The Pope will speak with them for about 20 minutes from the Foconi Room of the Vatican Library. It will be broadcast live on the European space agency's Web site, esa.int.
After Atlantis returns to Earth, meanwhile, NASA will close up shop on its shuttle program as space efforts shift to a more commercial focus.