The massive Rotating Service Structure is rolled away from space shuttle Atlantis on May 13, 2010 the day before its launch on mission STS-132. Atlantis is scheduled for liftoff from Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Centre at 18:20 GMT to begin a two-week mission to the International Space Station. Atlantis is delivering a Russian research module to the station, the first time a Russian ISS component has been delivered by the space shuttle.
This is Atlantis' final scheduled mission before it is retired along with the rest of NASA's shuttle fleet this year.
Space Shuttle Atlantis, ready for liftoff on Friday, will deliver important hardware from Europe to the International Space Station: spare portions of the European Robotic Arm and the first Russian payloads to use the arm. The European Robotic Arm (ERA) is the second 'intelligent' robot arm for the International Space Station (ISS). The first, used extensively for ISS assembly for almost 10 years, is Canadarm-2 - an iconic part of the ISS photos. Read more