The final flight of Atlantis will symbolize the end of an era for NASA, shuttle exploration, as well as local residents who have seen 134 shuttle launches before this one.
This mission is a bit of a space oddity. This space shuttle mission will only contain four astronauts. NASA protocol for sending 7 or 8 astronauts is based on a contingency plan that is no longer available. In the past, when a shuttle has been launched, another shuttle has always been put on standby, prepped for potential use in the event that something unexpected happened.
The 2nd shuttle serves as the emergency rescue vehicle, and with no shuttles available any longer, NASA would need to rely on our friends from Russia to perform rescue missions in the unlikely event that the four astronauts would need to be rescued and returned to earth. Even so, the Russians would only be capable of rescuing one astronaut at a time, returning, and then performing the task again. So. Here’s to a safe, uneventful flight.
At present, weather is threatening to delay the final launch of the shuttle, which is scheduled for Friday. There are reportedly 750,000 to 1 million people who are planning to crowd the Cape to enjoy the final launch. If it’s cloudy, it’ll be a fairly short visual display before the shuttle cruises into the clouds and beyond.
If NASA has to delay the launch beyond Sunday, they’ll have to scrap until mid-July, based on a scheduling conflict with an unmanned rocket scheduled for flight next week.
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