Preps for Launch Continue, Status Briefing This Morning

NASA officials will hold the STS-129 mission launch countdown status briefing this morning a 10 a.m. EST. It will be broadcast on NASA TV and online at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Final launch preparations continue at Launch Pad 39A with technicians closing space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay doors this morning.

Meanwhile, the STS-129 astronauts continue their prelaunch activities at Kennedy today. Commander Charles O. Hobaugh and Pilot Barry E. Wilmore practiced landings at the Shuttle Landing Facility this morning in NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft -- a Gulfstream II jet modified to simulate the shuttle controls and handling.

Techs also performed a final fit-check as Hobaugh and Wilmore donned their orange launch-and-landing gear.

NASA's official launch countdown clock begins counting backward at 1 p.m. EST today toward Monday's 2:28 p.m. liftoff.