Space Junkies Crowd into Cape Canaveral For Final Space Shuttle Launch

As many as a million people are expected to watch the s launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis with their own eyes Friday, in the area around Cape Canaveral on Florida's east coast.

They've been arriving all week in cars, vans, RV's, campers and mobile homes.  They're filling up every available hotel and motel room for miles around.

Others are pitching tents on the beach for miles north and south of the Kennedy Space Center launch complex.

Some are space launch rookies determined to not miss their last chance to see a space shuttle launch.  Others are space veterans who've seen nearly all of the launches ever done at the Cape.

Young or old, they all know they'll be eyewitnesses to history, as America's space shuttle program shuts down for whatever will replace it a few years from now.

It's possible the launch could be called on account of rain.  There's a 70 percent chance of rain Friday. If Friday's launch is scrubbed, NASA could try again Saturday or Sunday, when only a 40 percent chance of rain is forecast.

via Space junkies show up early for the big show | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

This will be a 12-day mission to the International Space Station, and the final flight of the shuttle program.  Atlantis will carry the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module containing supplies and spare parts for the space station.

via NASA - Space Shuttle.

The four astronauts making this final journey are Flight Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim. Atlantis will be retired and donated to a museum when she returns to Earth.