The space shuttle Atlantis touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Friday completing an 11-day mission to upgrade the International Space Station. During their time in orbit, the seven shuttle astronauts completed 4 spacewalks and installed over $1 billion in equipment, including a 13.5 ton metal beam which will serve as the backbone for future modules on the station. Astronaut Jerry Ross made history with this flight, becoming the first person to go into space seven times.
Atlantis Undocks from the Station, Prepares for Landing
Image credit: NASA
After a week of successful construction work, the 7-astronaut crew of the space shuttle Atlantis said their goodbyes to the crew of the International Space Station, closed the hatch, and undocked. During their time at the station, the crew of Atlantis installed $790 million in equipment, including a new girder and railcar which will support future expansion of the station. The shuttle is expected to land back in Florida on Friday.
Now separated from the International Space Station by about 85 statute miles and moving away at about 12 miles with each orbit of the Earth, Atlantis crewmembers turn their attention today to preparing for a return trip home.
The crew ? Commander Mike Bloomfield, Pilot Steve Frick, Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa, Rex Walheim, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steve Smith ? was awakened at 2:44 a.m. to ?Somewhere Over the Rainbow,? performed by Bloomfield?s daughter.
Bloomfield, Frick and Ochoa will test fire the reaction control system jets and flight control surfaces that will be used to guide Atlantis through the atmosphere on Friday morning. Atlantis is scheduled to return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:26 a.m. CDT Friday where preliminary weather forecasts for landing are favorable.
Crewmembers will take a break from their on orbit work today to talk with media representatives from CNN, WDIV-TV in Detroit and the Fox News Network this morning in an interview beginning at 9:14
Atlantis? orbital maneuvering jets will be fired twice today. Once will be for scientists to look at the exhaust?s effects on radar echoes and effects of orbital kinetic energy on the ionosphere. The other firing will reduce the cross range for Friday?s backup landing opportunity in Florida. Walheim, Morin, Ross and Smith will continue to pack away equipment and supplies onboard the shuttle and prepare the cabin for landing.
On board the International Space Station the Expedition 4 crew ? Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz ? was awakened at 3 a.m. They are preparing for their next visitors, a Soyuz taxi crew slated to arrive April 27. Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch, will board the current Soyuz spacecraft and move it from its location on the Zarya docking port to the Pirs docking compartment on Saturday to make room for the replacement Soyuz.
The crew of Atlantis will begin a scheduled eight-hour sleep period at 6:14 p.m. today, waking just after 2 a.m. Friday to prepare for reentry and landing of Atlantis concluding a successful mission to the station.
Original Source: NASA News Release
Atlantis Docks with the Station
Image credit: NASA
After its second day in space, Atlantis caught up, and docked with, the International Space Station. Its seven-astronaut crew are preparing to add the next major component to the station: a 13.4 metre truss which will serve as a backbone for new modules to be installed in future missions. The first spacewalk is scheduled for tomorrow, when astronauts Steve Smith and Rex Walheim will exit the shuttle and help make the first connections between the truss and the station. Three additional spacewalks are planned.
Atlantis gently docked with the International Space Station this morning over southern China, setting the stage for the installation of a 13 1/2 ton truss structure to the complex tomorrow and the ultimate expansion of the ISS to the length of a football field.
Commander Mike Bloomfield guided Atlantis to a linkup with the forward docking port of the station’s Destiny Laboratory at 11:05 a.m. Central time as the two vehicles sailed at an altitude of 240 statute miles. The docking culminated a textbook rendezvous executed by Bloomfield and Pilot Steve Frick. As Atlantis docked, Expedition Four Flight Engineer Dan Bursch, a Navy Captain, rang the ISS ship?s bell to greet the arriving shuttle crew.
About two hours later, at 1:07 p.m. Central time as the two craft flew over New Zealand, hatches swung open between Atlantis and the station, and the ten crew members greeted one another inside Destiny, marking the arrival of the first visitors for Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko, Flight Engineer Carl Walz and Bursch since they entered the ISS in December for the start of their six-month mission.
After a safety briefing for the shuttle astronauts by Onufrienko, the two crews began to transfer gear for the first spacewalk tomorrow by Steve Smith and Rex Walheim as well as experiments to be housed in Destiny.
Ellen Ochoa joined Bursch to brush up on procedures for the use of the station?s Canadarm2 robotic arm tomorrow which will be employed to grapple and unberth the 13 ? ton S0 (S-Zero) Truss from Atlantis? cargo bay for mating to a capture device at the top of Destiny. Smith, Walheim, Jerry Ross and Lee Morin will conduct four spacewalks to electrically and structurally mate the S-Zero to Destiny over the next week. Ochoa maneuvered the arm and verified it is in good working order to support the S-Zero operations on Thursday.
Smith and Walheim set up all the equipment in the Quest Airlock on the ISS from which they will mount the first of the four spacewalks to deploy two of the four mounting struts to Destiny and to bring power to the new truss from the U.S. Laboratory. Ochoa is scheduled to grapple the S-Zero around 5 a.m. Central time with the first spacewalk set to get underway around 10 a.m.
Atlantis and the ISS are in excellent shape, orbiting the Earth every ninety minutes in an orbit inclined 51.6 degrees to either side of the Equator.
The two crews began an eight-hour sleep period at 7:44 Central time this evening and will be awakened at 3:44 Thursday morning for the fourth day of the mission.
Original Source: NASA News Release
Atlantis Blasts Off
Image credit: NASA
The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral this morning, carrying seven astronauts and headed for the International Space Station. Liftoff occurred at 2044 GMT (4:44pm EDT), four days late because of a leaky fuel line on the shuttle’s launch pad. The shuttle is expected to dock with the station on Wednesday, and astronauts will begin the first of four spacewalks to install a new truss that will serve as a backbone for the station.
With the International Space Station and the Expedition Four crew orbiting high overhead, the shuttle Atlantis lifted off this afternoon on a complex mission to install a 43-foot long truss structure as the backbone for future expansion of the orbital outpost.
Commander Mike Bloomfield, Pilot Steve Frick, Flight Engineer Ellen Ochoa and spacewalkers Steve Smith, Rex Walheim, Jerry Ross and Lee Morin rocketed away from Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:44 p.m. Central time as the ISS orbited over the Atlantic Ocean due east of the northeastern United States at an altitude of 240 statute miles.
Launch occurred with only 12 seconds left in the 5-minute launch window due to a brief delay caused by a momentary ground launch system software glitch at the Launch Control Center at the Florida spaceport which paused the countdown at the T-minus 5-minute mark. Once the problem was solved, the countdown resumed.
Atlantis? launch marked a milestone as Ross became the first human to fly in space seven times, breaking a record of six flights previously held by Ross and fellow American astronauts John Young, Story Musgrave, Franklin Chang-Diaz and Curt Brown. No Russian cosmonaut has flown in space more than five times.
Now in their fifth month in orbit, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch were able to watch Atlantis? launch through a video uplink from flight controllers in Houston. Atlantis? arrival will mark the first visitors for the Expedition Four crewmembers since their launch back in December.
Less than nine minutes later, Atlantis and its crewmembers settled into orbit as work began to prepare the shuttle for its planned 11-day mission and for a series of rendezvous maneuvers to reach the station on Wednesday morning. Atlantis will actually have to lap the ISS as a result of those maneuvers before its scheduled docking with the outpost Wednesday.
After Atlantis? payload bay doors are opened and approval is given for the start of orbital operations, the seven crewmembers will unstow computers and other gear required for the mission.
If all goes as planned, Atlantis will link up to the station Wednesday just after 11 a.m. Central time, setting the stage for the installation of the S0 (S-Zero) Truss on Thursday morning on the Destiny Laboratory and the first of four spacewalks to mate and activate the new component to Destiny. The S-Zero Truss will serve as a platform upon which other trusses will be attached and additional solar arrays will be mounted in future assembly flights to form a structure longer than the length of a football field. The new truss will also serve as a primary electrical switching station to route power from the stations? arrays to various modules and components.
The shuttle crew will begin its first sleep period at 8:44 p.m. Central time and will be awakened at 4:44 Tuesday morning to begin its first full day in orbit, designed to test the ship?s robot arm, spacesuits and rendezvous equipment which will be used over the next few days.
Original Source: NASA News Release
Fuel Leak Delays Atlantis Launch
Leaking fuel on the launch pad of the space shuttle Atlantis has forced NASA controllers to push back the launch – leaking ground equipment that supply the shuttle with liquid-hydrogen appear to be the culprit. Atlantis had been scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral at 2213 GMT (5:13pm EST), so when the cancellation was announced, the seven astronauts hadn’t even suited up yet. NASA has yet to announce when the countdown will resume. (Source: AP)
Secretive Atlantis Countdown Starts
NASA began the countdown for Thursday’s launch of the space shuttle Atlantis; however, the specific launch time is still being kept confidential until 24 hours before – some time between 1900-2300 GMT (2:00pm-6:00pm EST). When Atlantis does launch, it will fly up to dock with the International Space Station and its 7-astronaut crew will attach a $600 million truss and $190 million rail car and track which will enable the station’s robot arm to move from end to end assisting construction. (NASA Status Report)
NASA Classifies Shuttle Launch Times
NASA officials have decided to keep the exact time of launch of the next space shuttle a secret until 24 hours before liftoff to guard against terrorist attack. So, the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, on a mission to continue assembly of the International Space Station, will occur at some point on the afternoon of April 4th.
Shuttle Prepares for Morning Landing
The weather in Florida is looking good for Tuesday morning’s landing of the space shuttle Columbia. Assuming everything goes as planned (there’s slight chance of rain, but nothing that would delay the landing), Columbia will land at the Kennedy Space Center at 0932 GMT (4:32am EST). The mission got off to a rocky start when one of the shuttle’s coolant lines was blocked, but controllers say that it won’t pose a risk when the shuttle heats up as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere. (source: Reuters)
Shuttle Lands Safely
The space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven astronauts landed safely Tuesday morning after completing their mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle landed precisely on schedule, at 0932 GMT (4:32am EST) at the Kennedy Space Center, and the crew performed the customary post-flight inspection of the shuttle. The next shuttle mission is schedule for three weeks from now, when Atlantis will dock with the International Space Station. (source: AP)
Success! Columbia Releases Upgraded Hubble
After five days of repairs, the newly upgraded Hubble Space Telescope was released from the space shuttle Columbia. Over the past week, spacewalking astronauts outfitted Hubble with new solar panels, power controller, pointing mechanism, and an advanced camera – 10 times more powerful than its previous system. During this mission, the astronauts set a record for time spent spacewalking, spending a total of 35 hours, 55 minutes outside the shuttle. Columbia is due to return to Earth on Tuesday morning.