The Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch at 7:38PM this evening from Kennedy Space Center. The flight, mission STS-117, has been delayed three months to repair the external fuel tank (which was damaged during a hail storm).
The main goal of this mission to the International Space Station is the installation of a 17-ton truss, along with a crew transfer. A minor piece of the mission which adds interest is that the flight is part of the 400th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Atlantis will carry a nearly 400-year-old metal cargo tag bearing the words “Yames Towne” and other commemorative mementoes. “We found the tag at the bottom of a well during a dig at the James Fort,” said William M. Kelso, director of archaeology at Historic Jamestowne for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. “It appears to be a discarded shipping tag from a crate or trunk that arrived from England around 1611. The artifact clearly marks Jamestown as a destination—our nation’s first address.”
When the one-inch in diameter artifact returns to Earth, it will have logged more than four million miles spanning four centuries. It will have traveled from England to Jamestown, then to and from the space station. Two sets of Jamestown commemorative coins (see pictures below) accomapny the tag.
Upon their return, NASA will present one set of the coins to Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for display at Jamestown Settlement, a 17th century living history museum. The second set will be displayed at the National Park Service’s Historic Jamestowne Visitor Center. The shipping tag will be returned to Historic Jamestowne, where it will join hundreds of other artifacts in a new archaeological museum called the Archaearium.
In other Shuttle news, NASA has announced a target launch date of 10 September 2008 for the fifth and final Space Shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. That 11-day flight will also use the Atlantis. The date was chosen to minimize the impact to the International Space Station’s continuing assembly. During the flight, NASA will also support a “launch on need” flight: Endeavour will be on Launch Pad 39-B in case a rescue flight is necessary (for instance, if Alantis is damaged on launch). Shuttle launches are becoming even more valuable, as the Shuttle fleet is planned to be retired by 2010.