KSC-2009-6304

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After nightfall on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, xenon lights reveal space shuttle Atlantis awaiting launch on its mobile launcher platform. Liftoff of the STS-129 mission is set for 2:28 p.m. EST Nov. 16. The pad's rotating service structure, at left, which provides weather protection and access for technicians to work on the shuttle, began being retracted at 5:20 p.m. EST and was in the park position by 5:56 p.m. On STS-129, the crew will deliver to the International Space Station two Express Logistics Carriers, the largest of the shuttle's cargo carriers, containing 15 spare pieces of equipment including two gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly and a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm. Atlantis will return to Earth a station crew member, Nicole Stott, who has spent more than two months aboard the orbiting laboratory. STS-129 is slated to be the final space shuttle Expedition crew rotation flight. For information on the STS-129 mission and crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts129/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder