KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - The seven astronauts who will fly aboard space shuttle Atlantis next month on the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope arrived at Kennedy Space Center today for a final countdown rehearsal and emergency training. The exercise, known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) will wrap up Thursday with a simulated countdown with the astronaut strapped into Atlantis.
"It's great to be down here and turning our focus from the hurricane that's behind us now to the flight that's in front of us and getting ready in this last couple of weeks, going through the countdown testing over the next few days," said shuttle commander Scott Altman in remarks after landing at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility. "It's reall great to be at this point and looking forward instead of behind, making this transition. So, really great training, were all happy to be down here."After TCDT is completed, NASA managers will hold the traditional Flight Readiness Review to determine the status of Atlantis' launch preparations and set a firm date for liftoff. Launch is currently scheduled for October 10, but that date is expected to slip by a day or two.The payload for STS-125 was transferred to the launch pad on Saturday, but workers were unable to lift the payload canister into the Payload Changeout Room on the Rotating Service Structure. For some reason, the latching mechanism has refused to engage, delaying the operation to transfer the payloads to Atlantis' cargo bay.with no contingency time remaining before launch, the delay in transferring the cargo is likely to have a ripple effect and push back the launch date by at least a day unless workers are able to make up time in the next few days.Meanshile, after TCDT, Atlantis' crewmembers will fly back to Johnson Space Center for final preflight training and preparation before returning to KSC for the launch of Atlantis on the eleven-day Hubble Servicing Mission 4.