MOSCOW, April 25 (AVN) - The launch of the Atlantis shuttle which had to be done overnight to Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Centre on the Cape Canaveral was postponed for a day due to high winds up to 37 km/h, a source in the Russian Flight Control Centre told the Military News Agency.
The shuttle will be piloted by an international crew of James D. Halsell (commander), Scott J. Horowitz (pilot); Mary Ellen Weber (mission specialist -1), Jeffrey Williams (mission specialist -2), James S. Voss (mission specialist -3), Susan J. Helms (mission specialist -4) and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachyov (mission specialist -5).
The shuttle has to dock with the International Space Station, to deliver about a ton of different loads, to elevate the orbit on 30 km higher than the present level, to check the work of the Zarya and Unity modules and their readiness for docking with the Russian service module. A spacewalk will be also conducted, during which a cargo crane will be mounted and a failed radio aerial will be replaced.
Another task is to deliver the torch and flag of the Olympic Games 2000 to the ISS. The attributes are already onboard the Atlantis. The launch of the torch signifies the beginning of a relay for delivering a torch to Greece, where in Olympia it will be ignited by the Sun rays on May 10.