NATION IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Countdown Begins for Test of Shuttle

NASA’s countdown clocks started ticking toward a test-firing of the space shuttle Endeavour’s three main engines, which will be fired for 22 seconds Monday. If all goes well, launch teams at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida will begin preparing the shuttle for a satellite rescue mission in early May. The engine test is required of all new shuttles. The space shuttle Atlantis, meanwhile, sustained little damage during a nine-day atmospheric research mission that ended Thursday with a Kennedy Space Center landing, NASA said.