A Major Tuneup
PALMDALE — The space shuttle Atlantis arrived in the high desert Friday for its 60-million-mile tuneup.
Although Atlantis has demonstrated on numerous flights that it can serenely orbit the planet, it needed some help on this voyage closer to Earth. Atlantis rode to the Antelope Valley from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center--with a refueling stop in Oklahoma--atop a modified Boeing 747.
The 747 landed on a runway near Air Force Plant 42 and then was towed into a metal tower designed to fit around the top and sides of the shuttle.
If all goes according to schedule, workers will extend straps from the tower shortly after dawn today to take up the weight of the spacecraft. Then the 747 will be rolled out of the way and Atlantis will be lowered to stand on its own landing gear.
The shuttle will then be towed nearby into a large hangar, called the Orbiter Major Modification Facility, where it will undergo its nine-month refurbishment and updating. The Atlantis’ next scheduled mission is a 1999 flight to deliver parts for construction of the planned International Space Station.
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