NASA has announced that Atlantis launch date will be no earlier than February, 7th. Unfortunately, I am currently extremely busy with my rsyslog project and don’t have the usual time to report on launch progress. I hope to be able to resume the usual coverage soon. In the mean time, please let me quote NASA’s shuttle home page:
Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have completed the installation of the replacement feed-through connector in the engine cutoff sensor system to the internal connector. The feed-through connector passes the wires from the inside of the tank to the outside.
The pins in the replacement connector have been skillfully soldered to create a connection that allows sensors inside the tank to send signals to the computers onboard Atlantis.
The work is being done on Launch Pad 39A in anticipation of a launch date for mission STS-122 now targeted for Feb. 7 at 2:47 p.m. EST.
Atlantis’ main objective during its STS-122 mission to the Internaltional Space Station is to install and activate the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, which will provide scientists around the world the ability to conduct a variety of experiments in life, physical, and materials science, Earth observation and solar physics.
Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-123 mission will deliver Kibo, the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s laboratory module, and Dextre, Canada’s new robotics system to the space station. The launch of Endeavour is targeted for mid-March.
NASA managers will meet in the coming weeks to address the schedule of remaining shuttle flights beyond STS-123.
Lets keep our fingers crossed. My 2 girls are waiting very patiently for the launch ;-))
Waiting for launch? In the meantime check out a behind-the-scenes look at NASA: http://www.youtube.com/reelnasa