Reporters keep asking NASA managers how they feel about working this last shuttle launch. If anyone is really ticked off, or depressed, it's not public. "Bittersweet" is a word that comes up often. "Honored" is another.
WIDE ANGLE: The Shuttle's Final Countdown
What's particularly striking, however, is the professionalism. You can see it in business suits the final four shuttle astronauts decided to wear for their media interviews in Houston last week. Most crews wear matching polo shirts, embroidered with their mission emblem.
Jeremy Graeber (right), one of the NASA test directors overseeing the last shuttle launch, puts it like this:
"The team gets into the mode of 'this is launch countdown.' That's the work we're doing. We understand it. We do it very well. And that’s what everyone focuses on.
"The rest of the emotion that comes with the end of the space shuttle program, I think will kind of roll in as launch is completed and we get past that."
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Speaking to us Tuesday morning, a few hours before countdown clocks at the Kennedy Space Center began ticking toward Friday’s launch, Graeber said he was really looking forward to getting on console.
"That's a really cool job," he said. "To do it one more time is a great feeling."
Atlantis is scheduled to launch on the 135th and final shuttle flight at 11:26 a.m. EDT. Weather, however, could be an issue. Meteorologists are predicting a 60 percent chance that thunderstorms and clouds will keep the shuttle on the ground for at least one more day.
Images: Trading flights suits for business attire, shuttle Atlantis astronauts Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim meet with reporters in Houston last week. Credit: Smiley Pool/Houston Chronicle/NASA (top); Launch director Jeremy Graeber, looking forward to getting to work. Credit: NASA
Tags: Astronauts, NASA, Space Shuttle
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