Atlantis departed her Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-2) on Friday, ahead of arriving inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Looking rather sorry for herself – with all her propulsive hardware elements removed – Atlantis can at least look forward to staying on the Space Coast, as her impressive retirement home began ground-breaking this week.
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NASA’s 15 Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) are being transported to the Stennis Space Center (SSC), as they transition towards their future role with the Space Launch System (SLS). The highly reliable RS-25Ds – nine of which flew with the last three Space Shuttle missions – will eventually be succeeded by the expendable RS-25E, early [...]
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The International Space Station (ISS) has now entered what will be a challenging new year, which will see access to the station for both crews and cargo tested, in wake of last year’s retirement of the Space Shuttle, the start of new commercial resupply flights, and recent failures of Russian launch vehicles.
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All good things must come to an end. And thus was the grand finale of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. It was year of exceptional highs and emotional scenes as Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis closed out their remarkable careers with same style, grace, mission success, and safety that all had come to know from [...]
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Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis was powered down for the final time on Thursday, following a 26 year, 33 mission career. With her retirement, the world-famous space ship will at least remain at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), a spaceport which is continuing to transition its shuttle facilities – as seen with the upping of the [...]
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With the Space Shuttle Program now officially a part of NASA’s past, the agency is continuing the process of getting Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour ready for their display at museums around the United States. However, following STS-135, NASA did conduct one official post-flight review – an investigation into RCC nose cap/chin strap damage to orbiter [...]
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Providing stunning images of the grand finale of the Shuttle Program, the External Tank (ET) camera on ET-138 concluded a 22-flight legacy - beaming back images of the tank’s performance through ascent. However, a camera modification was ultimately unsuccessful in transmitting much more than static footage of the tank as it tumbled into Earth’s atmosphere for its [...]
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Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Director Bob Cabana has spoken of his emotions during and after the final NASA Space Shuttle mission, ranging from launch day, through to seeing Atlantis return to her final resting place. Despite being known as a huge advocate of the transition to commercial launches, Mr Cabana chose to focus on the [...]
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Shuttle Atlantis has been given top marks for her return to Earth via the Mission Evaluation Room (MER) landing report – normally a highly technical, emotionless review into vehicle performance. However, as Atlantis begins down processing for her retirement, her team of engineers and controllers signed off on a report which included numerous notes of [...]
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Atlantis has concluded her historic 13-day mission to the International Space Station with a perfect landing at KSC. With a ‘go’ for deorbit and entry operations from Flight Controllers – confirmed thanks to excellent weather conditions at Kennedy – Atlantis’ 0556 EDT landing was saluted with a four minute visible, overhead pass by the ISS just nine [...]
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Following the expected clearance of the Thermal Protection System (TPS) – which was re-checked during Late Inspections, along with the successful checkouts of the systems the orbiter will use to carry her crew back to Earth – Atlantis is in the final hours of orbiting the planet, ahead of an expected early morning landing at [...]
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Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis has undocked from the ISS for the final time, ahead of carrying out the unique and stunning flyaround. And while the moment resulted in dazzling images of a graceful orbital ballet, as well as a multitude of emotions, Atlantis once again lent a helping hand to future spacecraft as she performed [...]
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Teams on the ground are working through possible root causes into the temporary failure of one of Atlantis’ General Purpose Computers (GPC-4), with a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) listed as one of three potential contributing factors. The computer now appears to be functioning normally, as Atlantis and her crew head into the final part of [...]
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A master alarm onboard Atlantis woke the crew from their sleep, after a General Purpose Computer (GPC-4) suffered a problem. The issue follows the failure – and subsequent recovery – of GPC-3 earlier in the mission. Meanwhile, the Damage Assessment Team (DAT) provided their full review of the orbiter’s Thermal Protection System (TPS), which has [...]
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With STS-135/Atlantis now officially extended by one day, the STS-135/Atlantis crew and the ISS crew are pressing forward with the immediate days of the mission as written by the pre-launch timeline. To that end, ISS crewmembers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan worked through the only EVA (spacewalk) of the docked portion of the Atlantis’s mission, [...]
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The Mission Management Team (MMT) have approved the extension of the STS-135 mission by one day, thanks to Atlantis’ healthy cryo margins. The extension will provide additional time for transfers to and from the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) which was berthed on the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, along with supporting additional ISS [...]
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Atlantis has docked to the International Space Station (ISS) – one final time – following an emotional R-Bar Pitch Maneuver (RPM) and text book approach to the orbital outpost. Her mission performance continues to be exemplary, as the Damage Assessment Team review the health of the Thermal Protection System, in tandem with data from the orbiter’s [...]
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The crew of Atlantis have completed the main task of Flight Day 2, a sweep of the orbiter’s Wing Leading Edges (WLE) and nose cap via the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), as they close in on Sunday’s docking with the International Space Station (International Space Station). Initial imagery points to only a few items [...]
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Following a typically eventful shuttle launch countdown, the Mission Evaluation Room (MER) teams have confirmed Atlantis enjoyed a flawless launch on Friday, as her crew prepare to head into Flight Day 2′s tasks relating to the inspections of the Thermal Protection System (TPS). Atlantis is currently in pursuit of the International Space Station (ISS) for [...]
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Following was Atlantis’ last – and rather eventful – final full day at Launch Pad 39A, STS-135 has launched into orbit. After beating the odds on the weather front, a hold at T-31 seconds – related to the GOX Vent Hood retraction – was soon resolved, allowing Atlantis to blast off into the heavens via [...]
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