Latest Atlantis Stories

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlantis, Paradise Island in The Bahamas, named one of Parents magazine's "Top Ten Beach Resorts For Families," is offering a 50 percent discount for a limited time at its newest luxury tower, The Reef Atlantis, in celebration of World Ocean Day. The recently-opened 497-key tower offers guests home-like accommodations and amenities -- with the beach as a backyard -- while instigating conservation and protection of the world's oceans through...

Astronauts belonging to the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour should arrive in Florida on Friday evening to an excellent forecast. Meteorologists predicted almost perfect weather and a 90 percent chance for an on time launch for Tuesday's 2:28 AM EDT launch of Endeavor from the Kennedy Space Center. The crew is arriving early to prepare for a three day launch countdown which will begin early Saturday. The Endeavour, embarking less than three weeks following the space shuttle Atlantis'...

Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today. The world map might look differently had the Greek volcano Thera not erupted 3,500 years ago in what geologists believe was the single-most powerful explosive event ever witnessed. Thera didn't just blow a massive hole into the island of Santorini - it set the entire ancient Mediterranean onto a different course, like a...

This story was updated at 5:45 a.m. EST. HOUSTON — The seven astronauts of NASA's shuttle Atlantis are spending Valentine's Day with their very own Dr. Love and are due for a break as they start up a new European lab at the International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Stanley Love, an astronomer-turned-astronaut, and his STS-122 crewmates are scheduled to have a few hours off today to explore the ISS or peer down at their home planet before resuming work on the newly...

Cheers and shouts could be heard throughout the space center as Atlantis, carrying the STS-122 crew and Columbus Laboratory, roared off the launch pad into the mid-afternoon sky to begin the 24th mission to the International Space Station.The ship lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 1:45 p.m. CST, roaring away ahead of stormy weather whose approach threatened to delay the 11-day mission earlier in the day.There were no problems with the erratic fuel gauges that thwarted two launch...

By MIKE SCHNEIDER HOUSTON - Atlantis was cleared Saturday to return to Earth this coming week after the space shuttle's heat shield was judged capable of surviving the intense heat of re-entry, and a U.S. astronaut reached a milestone with the longest single spaceflight by any woman. Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday, although NASA officials were still deciding whether to keep the shuttle at the international space station for an extra day because of a failure of...

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The crew of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis returned to Florida on Saturday to prepare for a new launch attempt on NASA's first International Space Station assembly mission in nearly four years. The U.S. space agency had intended to launch the shuttle last week, but a tropical storm and a lightning strike at the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center derailed those plans. Instead of blasting into orbit, Atlantis commander Brent Jett...

By Irene KlotzCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Countdown clocks began ticking on Thursday for NASA's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, which is due to blast off on Sunday on a mission to deliver and install power-generating solar arrays on the International Space Station.The shuttle mission is only the third since the 2003 Columbia disaster. The previous flights were to test safety improvements undertaken by the U.S. space agency.Atlantis, making its 27th flight, will kick off a...

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts assigned to fly on the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis later this month climbed into their flight suits and scrambled aboard the shuttle on Thursday for a three-hour dress rehearsal for launch. The six-member crew hopes to be back at the Kennedy Space Center in two weeks for the start of a real countdown to the first shuttle mission in more than three years aimed at resuming construction of the $100 billion International Space...

Revises second paragraph to make clear this is the first shuttle mission in more than three years aimed at resuming construction of the International Space Station. It is not the first shuttle mission in more than three years. By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts assigned to fly on the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis later this month climbed into their flight suits and scrambled aboard the shuttle on Thursday for a three-hour dress rehearsal for launch. The...