At approximately 7:38 p.m. EDT, the STS-117 mission will begin with the launching of the Space Shuttle Atlantis from Launch Pad 39A--with only a ten minute window of opportunity. The eleven-day mission will be the 21st NASA mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

STS-117 is the 118th shuttle flight for NASA. The STS-117 crew includes commander Frederick Sturckow, pilot Lee Archambault, ISS Expedition 15/16 flight engineer Clayton C. Anderson, and mission specialists James Reilly II, Steven Swanson, Patrick Forrester, and John D. Olivas,

Expedition 14/15 flight engineer Sunita L. Williams will return to the Earth from the ISS aboard Atlantis with the STS-117 crew. Expedition 15/16 flight engineer Clayton C. Anderson will replace Williams. He will return to the Earth aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-120.

The crew will deliver the second and third starboard truss segments (S3/S4) to the Space Station, along with a pair of solar arrays. Atlantis and crew will return to the Earth on June 19, 2007 with a scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center.

For more information about the STS-117 mission and crew (including profiles on each member of the crew), go to the NASA website “Mission Information: STS-117”.

Activities to be shown on live NASA TV are shown on NASA website “NASA Television”.

Commentary and coverage of the launch, scheduled for 7:38 p.m., will begin at 1:30 p.m. EDT on June 8, 2007.

Go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ to view all of these STS-117 activities.

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