Shuttle Ready to Leave Processing Facility

NASA mission managers say final checks have been completed and space shuttle Atlantis is ready to leave the Orbiter Processing Facility.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials say the the vehicle has been powered down in preparation for its move Wednesday to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. Workers are completing final closeout operations on the external tank and solid rocket boosters in the Vehicle Assembly Building to ready the rocket assembly for mating to the orbiter.

The flight of space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station on mission STS-117 is scheduled for March 15, a day earlier than originally planned.

The Atlantis crew is to install a new truss segment, retract a set of solar arrays and unfold a new set on the starboard side of the space station.