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The STS-135 astronauts are beginning to climb aboard space shuttle Atlantis in preparation for a liftoff at 11:26 a.m. EDT. The boarding process should take a little more than an hour and the hatch will be closed for flight at about 9:21 a.m.

Launch Director Mike Leinbach completed a weather briefing with Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters, Ascent Flight Director Richard Jones and the Spaceflight Meteorology group in Mission Control in Houston. While weather remains dynamic, Leinbach told the launch team, "We do have a shot at this today."

Teams are not working any issues that would delay the launch of Atlantis on mission STS-135, the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 directs NASA to conduct the STS-135 mission. The Space Shuttle Program has added the mission to the manifest to prepare for a potential target launch date in early July.

Atlantis will carry the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station. The mission also will fly a system to investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing spacecraft and return a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems.


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WILL UPDATE AT LAUNCH IF NOT CALLED OFF DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS.

Information obtained from NASA.gov