After the recent flight of the Endeavour – its last – in which it delivered the multi-billion dollar antimatter detector to the International Space Station, NASA wants to wrap up its space shuttle program with this last flight of Atlantis. STS-135, its mission name, is expected to complete a twelve day mission during which it will deliver spare parts and essential supplies on board the ISS.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--After a cliff-hanger countdown, the space shuttle Atlantis thundered to life and majestically rocketed into history Friday, putting on one last sky show for spectators jamming area roads and beaches to witness NASA's 135th and final shuttle launch.
With commander Christopher Ferguson and pilot Douglas Hurley monitoring the computer-orchestrated countdown, Atlantis' three hydrogen-fueled main engines flashed to life at 120 millisecond intervals, followed 6.6 seconds later by ignition of the shuttle's twin solid fuel boosters at 11:29:04 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).
At that same instant, explosive charges in four massive bolts at the base of each booster detonated, freeing the 4.5-million-pound shuttle "stack" from its mobile launch platform.
Joining Ferguson and Hurley for the last shuttle flight were Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim, making up the first four-person shuttle crew since the program's sixth launch in 1983.
If all goes well, Ferguson will guide Atlantis to a docking at the space station's forward port at 11:10 a.m. Sunday. The next day, an Italian-built cargo module will be attached to the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module and the combined 10-member shuttle-station crew will begin a hectic week of work to move five tons of equipment and supplies into the lab complex.
The supplies packed into the Raffaello module are critical to the space station program. Two companies, Space Exploration Technologies--SpaceX--and Orbital Sciences Corp., are building unmanned cargo ships to take over from the shuttle after the fleet is retired with initial test flights expected later this year or early next.
With a reduced crew of four, only one spacewalk is planned during Atlantis' visit, a six-and-a-half-hour excursion by station flight engineers Ronald Garan and Michael Fossum. Their primary objectives are to move an experimental robotic refueling package from Atlantis to the station and to mount a failed ammonia coolant pump in the shuttle's cargo bay for return to Earth.
"After the wheels have stopped and the displays go blank and the orbiter is unpowered for the final time...there will be a rush of emotion when we all finally realize that's it, that it's all over, the crowning jewel of our space program, the way we got back and forth from low-Earth orbit for 30 years...we'll realize that's all over," Ferguson said before launch. "That's going to take a little while to deal with."
This mission marks the 33rd flight of Atlantis and the 135th mission of NASA's 30-year shuttle program. NASA is retiring its three-shuttle fleet to make way for a new deep space exploration plan aimed at sending astronauts to visit an asteroid by 2025.
SOURCE NEWS.CNET
Thanks for reading
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK THE REASON WHY NASA IS ENDING ITS SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM??
FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS YOUR VIEWS!
No comments:
Post a Comment