Fayetteville native to return to space on shuttle Atlantis

Fayetteville native Tony Antonelli will make his second journey into orbit on space shuttle Atlantis' next mission to the International Space Station, officials said Wednesday.

The STS-132 flight is targeted to launch May 14 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Antonelli piloted the space shuttle Discovery during a March 2009 mission.

The six astronauts for the Atlantis mission will deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module, also known as Rassvet – "dawn" in Russian – to the space station. The flight also will deliver critical spare parts and cargo. During the 12-day mission, three spacewalks are planned to put the spare parts on the station.

STS-132 is the final scheduled flight of Atlantis. Following STS-132, two more shuttle flights remain scheduled before the shuttle program is retired.