Posted: Wed, May 12, 2010, 6:30 AM ET (1030 GMT)
NASA started the countdown Tuesday afternoon for Friday's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on what may be that orbiter's final mission. The countdown started at 4 pm EDT (2000 GMT) for the launch of Atlantis on mission STS-132 at 2:20 pm EDT (1820 GMT) Friday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pre-launch preparations have been proceeding smoothly and forecasts call for a 70-percent chance of acceptable weather at launch time. Atlantis will deliver a Russian lab module to the ISS and its crew will also perform several spacewalks outside the station. The launch is one of three remaining on the shuttle manifest and the last scheduled mission for Atlantis.
