with STS-31 and STS-82. The launch window was co-ordinated with the Soyuz TMA-9 launch in mid-September, which delivered a new ISS crew and fresh supplies to the station. The Soyuz spacecraft operationally did not dock to the station while the Space Shuttle was there. The mission marks: 147th NASA crewed space flight. 116th space shuttle flight since STS-1. 27th flight of Atlantis. 91st post-Challenger mission. 3rd post-Columbia mission. 1st post-Columbia mission of Atlantis. Mission timeline Launch preparations Atlantis was rolled out from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on July 24, 2006. It was lowered onto the mobile launcher platform on July 26 and rolled out to Pad 39B in the early morning hours of August 2. The rollout was scheduled for July 31, but a storm in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center resulted in a delay of two days from fears of the orbiter being hit by lightning, which could cause immeasurable damage. On the weekend of August 5 to 6, 2006, engineers completed a "flight readiness" check of the shuttle's main engines, which were deemed ready for launch. The crew arrived at the Kennedy Space Center August 7, 2006, for four days of launch rehearsals, including a practice countdown August 10. Top NASA managers held a Flight Readiness Review (FRR) meeting August 15–16, 2006 to finalize the launch date. Foam loss from the external tank was a key issue at this meeting because on August 13, 2006, NASA announced there was an average amount of loss from the external tank of STS-121, the previous mission. Columbia'''s demise was due to a piece of foam, shed from its external tank, striking the shuttle's left wing during launch and causing a hole that was breached during re-entry. The meeting also discussed problems with the bolts securing the shuttle's Ku-band antenna, which might not have been threaded correctly. The installation had been in place for several flights and hadn't experienced any problems. At the end of the two-day meeting, NASA managers had decided to proceed with the launch on August 27, 2006. However, on August 18, 2006, NASA decided to replace the antenna bolts with Atlantis still on the launch pad. NASA had no procedure to replace these on the pad, but the work was nonetheless completed by August 20, without affecting the planned launch date. On August 25, 2006, a direct lightning strike, the