Categories: MissionsSpace Shuttle

UT Briefs: Shuttle Lands, Re-living Phoenix

[/caption]

Space Shuttle Lands

Space shuttle Atlantis landed safely in California on Sunday morning after “dynamic and unpredictable” weather kept the orbiter from returning to Florida. Atlantis touched down on runway 22 of Edwards Air Force Base at 11:39 am EDT (1539 GMT) Sunday, the first of two opportunities to land the shuttle in California. Atlantis spent nearly 13 days in orbit on the STS-125 mission, successfully repairing and upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope during a series of five spacewalks. Atlantis will be ferried to Kennedy Space Center on top of a modified 747 in about a week. Next shuttle mission: STS-127, slated for liftoff on June 13, on a trip to the International Space Station.


Remembering Phoenix

Do you remember what you were doing a year ago? You may recall the Phoenix Mars lander touched down on the Red Planet a year ago, and if you were on Twitter back then, you could follow the spacecraft’s progress via the fledgling social networking device. The “voice” of Phoenix’s Twitter account, Veronica McGregor, is re-living the events of a year ago by re-posting her “Tweets” in real time as they were written a year ago. It is a fun way to stroll down memory lane.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

Gaze at New Pictures of the Sun from Solar Orbiter

74 million kilometres is a huge distance from which to observe something. But 74 million…

14 minutes ago

Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?

Astronomers have only been aware of fast radio bursts for about two decades. These are…

5 hours ago

Here’s How to Weigh Gigantic Filaments of Dark Matter

How do you weigh one of the largest objects in the entire universe? Very carefully,…

7 hours ago

How Could Astronauts Call for Help from the Moon?

Exploring the Moon poses significant risks, with its extreme environment and hazardous terrain presenting numerous…

20 hours ago

There Was a 15 Minute Warning Before Tonga Volcano Exploded

Volcanoes are not restricted to the land, there are many undersea versions. One such undersea…

20 hours ago

Main Sequence and White Dwarf Binaries are Hiding in Plain Sight

Some binary stars are unusual. They contain a main sequence star like our Sun, while…

21 hours ago