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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A piece of space debris punched a small hole in one of space shuttle Atlantis' radiator panels during its recent 12-day spaceflight, NASA said on Thursday. Damage from debris has been NASA's top safety issue since the destruction of shuttle Columbia in February 2003, when insulating foam came off the ship's fuel tank during launch and punched a hole in the shuttle's protective heat shield. The radiator damage, which measures slightly more than one-tenth of an inch in diameter, was found during routine post-landing inspections at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA spokeswoman Jessica...

Shuttle Atlantis' payload bay doors have been closed and locked in preparation for today's fiery descent into Earth's atmosphere and landing at Kennedy Space Center. Touchdown is scheduled for 6:21 a.m. EDT.

Cape Canaveral -- The crew of the international space station welcomed Atlantis' six astronauts on board Monday after the space shuttle arrived carrying the first new addition for the orbiting laboratory in more than 3 1/2 years. The hatch between two orbiting spacecraft was opened more than 1 1/2-hours after Atlantis commander Brent Jett eased the space shuttle into the station's docking port at 6:48 a.m. EDT. The shuttle's nearly two-day trip from Earth ended as the two vehicles were passing about 220 miles above the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean. Atlantis pilot Chris Ferguson, on his first trip...

AP) Early results from an inspection of space shuttle Atlantis using sensors attached to a boom showed no evidence of damage to the shuttle's thermal skin as it soars to the international space station, a flight director said Sunday. "I have not seen a single problem with the vehicle," said flight director Paul Dye. "So far, everything has gone exactly according to plan except for the fact that we're a little bit early." A decision won't be made for a couple of days on whether NASA will use an extra day to do a "focused inspection" on areas of the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA makes its fifth attempt to get Atlantis off the launch pad at 11:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday. If the mission is scrubbed again, the space agency must abandon for a few weeks its efforts to send the shuttle off on a construction mission at the international space station.

Lets burn this candle!!!!

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA will try to launch the space shuttle Atlantis on Friday after clearing a technical problem with a power generator that forced a two-day delay, officials said on Thursday.The U.S. space agency had planned to launch Atlantis on Wednesday on the first construction mission to the International Space Station since the 2003 Columbia disaster, but a problem in a motor inside one of the shuttle's onboard fuel cells prompted managers to delay the launch.The flight was previously postponed by a lightning strike and a storm."The team came to the conclusion today that the cloud we...

FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2006 1430 GMT (10:30 a.m. EDT) The shuttle Atlantis' countdown continues to tick smoothly toward launch on a space station assembly mission. Liftoff is targeted for 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The latest forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of favorable weather, improving to 80 percent "go" Monday and Teusday. The concern Sunday is for possible afternoon thunderstorms within the launch area. =================================================

Five hours after starting space shuttle Atlantis on a slow crawl toward its hangar, NASA changed course Tuesday and sent it back to the launch pad, saying the forecast for Tropical Storm Ernesto had improved. Atlantis was almost halfway into the 12-hour journey back to the Vehicle Assembly Building aboard a giant, caterpillar-track platform when NASA reversed course Tuesday afternoon. "The hurricane track has taken it further west to where the winds have diminished and where we can tolerate them at the pad," said NASA spokesman Bill Johnson. Ernesto's peak winds were expected to be less than 79 mph, the...

The shuttle Atlantis' astronauts flew to Florida today to prepare for launch Sunday on a long-awaited flight to restart space station assembly. With forecasters predicting a 70 percent chance of good weather, liftoff from pad 39B is targeted for 4:30 p.m. Sunday. "I hope you can tell by the smiles on our faces that we're very, very happy to finally be here in Florida to start the launch countdown," Commander Brent Jett told reporters at the shuttle runway. "Now there's been a lot of talk in the press lately about NASA being 'back' and I think we would all certainly...

CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA is poised to pick up the countdown to launch of shuttle Atlantis this week after swapping out two suspect bolts securing a key communications antenna inside the ship's cargo bay. The work, which was finished Sunday at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B, put NASA in position to start a three-day countdown Thursday. Liftoff of Atlantis and six astronauts remains scheduled for about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. "Everything is looking good," said KSC spokeswoman Tracy Young. Working atop a platform and scaffolding near the top of the shuttle's six-story payload bay, technicians replaced two of the four...

With just 17 or so flights left on the shuttle manifest before the program is terminated in 2010, NASA's three remaining orbiters can only expect to fly about five missions each. As it turns out, NASA now plans to retire Atlantis in 2008, after five flights, rather than put it through a required overhaul and to "fly out" the remaining half-dozen missions on the manifest with Discovery and Endeavour. But shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told Kennedy Space Center employees today that Atlantis will not be given to a museum, at least not right away. Instead, the space shuttle will...

NASA may push back plans to launch its next shuttle mission until March 2006, allowing engineers more time to solve an ongoing foam shedding problem with orbiter external tanks. A September launch attempt of the space shuttle Atlantis and its STS-121 mission – NASA’s second orbiter to fly since the Columbia disaster – is all but out, with space agency officials stating last week that chances were slim they would make the four-day window that opens on Sept. 22. Shuttle managers are discussing whether to push past a brief, four-day launch window in November, and even switch shuttles – launching...