Atlantis Space Shuttle Ready for Launch

Finally, after months of delays and technical problems, like the pierced fuel tank because of a freak hail storm, the space ship Atlantis is ready for launch, said NASA bosses. They hope for a June 8 launch and a successful mission to the international space station.

"We've just been focused on our training and are ready to go," said Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow. He also said that he and his crew haven't been distracted from their preparations for continuing construction of the space station.

Sturckow has the nickname C.J., or Caustic Junior, but he swears it's not because of his personality. It was given to him when he was a young Marine because he resembled a squadron commander who was appropriately called "Caustic."

The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis took scrupulous notes during two of last year's construction missions on the international space station. They'll be expected to accomplish the same challenging tasks.

All of Atlantis' astronauts were born in the United States, and they are all four first-time spacefliers in the crew - Clayton Anderson, pilot Lee Archambault, Danny Olivas and Steven Swanson - and members of the astronaut class of 1998.

The life of the space program wasn't easy and many strange things happened in the last year, that drew the attention away from space exploration and towards the more mundane aspects of the crew. One of the female astronauts, Lisa Nowak, the married mother of three children, was arrested for trying to kidnap a woman who had won the affections of her astronaut lover. The police said she drove 900 miles to confront her rival and she wore astronaut diapers so she wouldn't have to make restroom stops.

Now, a union representing 570 space shuttle program workers at the Kennedy Space Center voted to go on strike Saturday, less than a week before the planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis.

NASA officials hope the strike will be stopped in time for the scheduled launch, on Friday, June 8.