The six astronauts for space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-129 mission are at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida tonight. They arrived at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility in staggered waves between about 5 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. EST. The crew will finish the full launch dress rehearsal known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.
Tonight, STS-129 Commander Charlie Hobaugh and Pilot Barry Wilmore will practice shuttle landings in modified Gulfstream II jets called Shuttle Training Aircraft.
Tuesday, the launch team with all six crew members inside Atlantis on Launch Pad 39A will go through a countdown simulation. Additional training associated with TCDT was done last month, but the simulated countdown was postponed until this week because of a scheduling conflict with the launch of NASA’s Ares I-X test rocket.
After the launch simulation and emergency pad escape training, the astronauts will inspect the cargo that they’ll take to the International Space Station before returning to Johnson Space Center in Houston Tuesday afternoon.
Atlantis is scheduled to launch on its 11-day supply mission to the space station on Nov. 16 at 2:28 p.m.
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