Does shuttle Atlantis have one extra flight in her?
Will the space shuttle Atlantis get a reprieve from retirement and fly again next year to truck a load of supplies to the International Space Station? Well, no one knows the definitive answer yet. Many have urged NASA to do it. The program has the fuel tank and solid rockets to power the mission. But, thus far, the space agency hasn’t formally started planning the flight, nor does it have the funding from Congress. The ability to even contemplate the bonus extension stems from the post-Columbia philosophy of always having a rescue vehicle available to mount an emergency retrieval of astronauts stranded in orbit by a damaged shuttle unfit for re-entry. When Atlantis lands on May 26, ground technicians will put the shuttle back into the typical post-flight turnaround process to ready it for duty as the rescue ship for Endeavour’s STS-134 mission, which is currently the program’s final flight later this year. “We’ll be processing her as if it’s a real flight to begin with. Somewhere along
