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WASHINGTON (AFP) – NASA said Friday it is aiming to start the expanse shuttle Atlantis on July 8 for the last-ever grace of the 30-year-old dweller shuttle program.

The 12-day assignment to the International Space Station (ISS) module be staffed by a smaller than usual crew of four dweller astronauts, the US expanse agency said.

"NASA's test expanse shuttle grace is targeted to start July 8 at most 11:40 am (1540 GMT) from the agency's President Space Center in Florida," a statement said.

"Four veteran astronauts module control aboard shuttle Atlantis to have supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station."

An authorised selection on the start fellow and instance module be announced following a grace state analyse meeting on June 28, NASA said.

Atlantis was initially set to start in New June but was suspended after technical woes suspended the Endeavour mission. The shuttle Endeavour launched Monday and is currently cropped at the ISS.

The three-decade US shuttle information module modify after Atlantis's mission, leaving Russia's expanse capsules as the sole taxi to the ISS until clannish companies crapper come up with a new spacecraft, mayhap by 2015.

NASA said whatever extra tests would be done to ensure that Atlantis is primed to fly, including a special communicating of the hold beams, famous as stringers, for the outside render tank.

Cracks in the stringers suspended the Discovery assignment in Nov 2010, though it yet was unwooded for start in Feb and became the prototypal shuttle of the expanse air fast to officially start retirement.

"There are individual non-standard activities, including a tanking effort followed by an X-ray inspection of a land of the outside render tank, which haw change Atlantis' processing," NASA said.

A key objective of the Atlantis assignment to the orbiting lab is to "deliver an experiment fashioned to demonstrate and effort the tools, technologies and techniques necessary to robotically refuel satellites in space," NASA said.

The shuttle module be commanded by NASA traveler Chris Ferguson, who has flown on digit preceding shuttle missions. Other crew members module be pilot Doug Hurley and assignment specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.

The Atlantis mission, STS-135, module be the 33rd expanse grace for that particular shuttle and the 135th and test assignment for NASA's expanse shuttle program.

After the test shuttle missions, the three satellite in the air fast and the image Enterprise module be dispatched to assorted museums crossways the country.

Discovery, the oldest in the group, was the prototypal shuttle to fling after its test journey to the ISS ended in March. Endeavour, the youngest, and flew its prototypal expanse assignment in 1991 and is currently on its test assignment to the ISS.

The another original members of the fast include Enterprise, which never flew in space; Challenger, which exploded presently after liftoff in 1986; and Columbia, which disintegrated on its return to Earth in 2003.

A amount of 14 astronauts were killed in the Columbia and Challenger disasters.

With the US shuttle information closing, the world's astronauts module rely on Russia's expanse capsules for installation to the ISS at a cost of more than $50 meg per seat.

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