Atlantis Tank Connected to Boosters; Discovery in OPF

Preparations are under way in the Vehicle Assembly Building for the November launch of Atlantis on the STS-129 mission. The external tank for Atlantis was connected yesterday to the twin solid rocket boosters.

Space shuttle Discovery was hoisted off of the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that brought it from California and is inside Orbiter Processing Facility-3 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Technicians will begin servicing the shuttle from its just-completed STS-128 mission. The work includes removing the Leonardo supply module from Discovery's payload bay. The module carried new experiments and other equipment to the International Space Station and returned with some completed research items. The cargo bay also contains a depleted ammonia tank spacewalkers removed from the station, along with experiments that were mounted on the outside of the Columbus laboratory module.