NASA next week will begin assembly of shuttle Atlantis for a planned Aug. 28 launch on a mission aimed at resuming construction of the half-built International Space Station, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.

Set to begin June 2, the assembly work also is timed to enable NASA to launch Atlantis on a mid-August rescue mission should serious problems crop up during a test flight aboard Discovery in July.

The assembly work will begin in high bay three of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building, where workers will start stacking two solid rocket boosters on a mobile launcher platform.

Now in a nearby hangar, Atlantis is to be rolled into the 52-story assembly building on July 25. Crane operators then will hoist the spaceship atop the mobile launcher platform and connect it to an external tank outfitted with the two boosters, Florida Today reported.

The tank for the mission is due to arrive at KSC on June 5.

The prime payload for the mission -- a port-side station truss segment and associated solar arrays -- is to be moved to the launch pad on July 27, the report said.

Mounted atop a giant tracked transporter, the fully assembled shuttle will roll out to the pad on Aug. 1.

The astronauts who will fly the mission will be at KSC for a practice countdown on Aug. 8. The crew includes commander Brent Jett, pilot Chris Ferguson and four mission specialists: Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean.

Post-Columbia launch restrictions will be in place for the mission. The flight must be launched during daylight and at a time when the shuttle's redesigned external tank will be jettisoned on the sunlit side of Earth.

The restrictions will enable NASA to document any external tank foam shedding during flight. The resulting launch window will extend until Sept. 13.

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