NASA STARTS SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS COUNTDOWN SEPT. 3

Sept. 1, 2006

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4769

Bruce Buckingham
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468

MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-141

NASA STARTS SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS COUNTDOWN SEPT. 3

NASA will start the launch countdown for Space Shuttle Atlantis'
STS-115 mission at 8 a.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 3, at the T-43 hour
point.

During this mission, Atlantis' crew will resume construction of the
International Space Station, which is the goal of the remaining space
shuttle flights until the spacecraft are retired in 2010.

The first countdown for Atlantis' launch was stopped because of
Tropical Storm Ernesto.
The countdown includes 33 hours, 24 minutes of built-in hold time
leading to a preferred launch time at approximately 12:29 p.m. EDT
Wednesday, Sept. 6. The launch window for Wednesday extends an
additional five minutes.

A detailed list of launch countdown milestones and times is available
at:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006...countdown.html

This mission is the 116th space shuttle flight, the 27th flight for
Atlantis and the 19th U.S. flight to the International Space Station.
STS-115 is scheduled to last 11 days with a landing at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center, Fla., about 8:03 a.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 17.

Atlantis' last mission was STS-112 in October 2002. In preparation for
STS-115, Atlantis was moved into Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building
on July 24. Atlantis then was attached to its modified external tank
and solid rocket boosters. Space Shuttle Atlantis was rolled out to
Launch Pad 39B on Aug. 2. The initial launch date of Aug. 27 was
scrubbed to evaluate the shuttle and its systems after a lightning
strike at the launch pad. A partial rollback to the Vehicle Assembly
Building took place Aug. 29 due to concerns about Tropical Depression
Ernesto.

The STS-115 crew is Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson, and
mission specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper
and Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean.

During STS-115, Atlantis' astronauts will deliver and install the
17.5-ton, bus-sized P3/P4 integrated truss segment on the station.
The girder-like truss includes a set of giant solar arrays, batteries
and associated electronics. The P3/P4 truss segment will provide
one-fourth of the total power-generation capability for the completed
station.

For information about the STS-115 crew and mission to the pace
station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl