Just one week after the successful return of the space shuttle Discovery, NASA is preparing for a new shuttle mission this August, moving space shuttle Atlantis from its hangar on Monday to the Kennedy Space Center complex where the spacecraft will be prepared for launch. NASA officials said Atlantis and six astronauts will lift off on August 27 or 28 to resume construction of the International Space Station (ISS). Shuttle launches and ISS construction had been on hold since the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed in 2003 during its orbital re-entry flight. Discovery's 13-day mission proved a redesigned external fuel tank was safe, and NASA has outlined a 16-mission program to finish construction of the space station before all the space shuttles are retired in 2010. A fault with the fuel tank had contributed to the Columbia disaster, fatally injuring the shuttle's heat-shield when a piece of frozen foam insulation fell off during launch. “We need to shift from the return-to-flight mode back to a more operational assembly sequence, where we're flying, hopefully, four to five times a year and completing the assembly fairly quickly,” Atlantis commander Brent Jett said in an interview. NASA launch managers will confirm Atlantis' launch dates following a flight review on August 16.
