KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth today to complete an eleven-day mission to outfit the International Space Station with spare parts that will be critical to maintaining the health of the station after the shuttle fleet is retired next year and can no longer service the complex. That time drew a little bit closer today. With the end of STS-129, there are only five more scheduled missions on the manifest.
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NOVEMBER 27, 2009
WATCH: STS-129 ASTRONAUTS LEAVE KSC PRESS SITE AFTER POSTLANDING NEWS CONFERENCE
WATCH: ATLANTIS IS TOWED BACK TO ITS HANGAR - PART 1
WATCH: ATLANTIS IS TOWED BACK TO ITS HANGAR - PART 2
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WATCH: POSTLANDING PRESS CONFERENCE
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WATCH: EDUCATIONAL EVENT
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WATCH: STS-129 FLIGHT DAY FIVE HIGHLIGHTS
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WATCH: STS-129 MEDIA INTERVIEWS PART 2
WATCH: STS-129 MEDIA INTERVIEWS PART 3
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NOVEMBER 27, 2009
DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-129 ASTRONAUTS LEAVE KSC PRESS SITE AFTER POSTLANDING NEWS CONFERENCE
However, concerns about what will happen in the post-shuttle era were temporarily forgotten today when Atlantis landed under crystal clear blue skies on the first landing opportunity of the day.
With the morning sun gleaming off its black and white heat shield, Atlantis swooped down through pristine Florida skies. Its arrival marked by the shuttle's signature double sonic booms, shuttle commander Charlie Hobaugh guided Atlantis through a wide overhead turn to line up on KSC's runway 33, south to north. A minute later, pilot Barry Wilmore flipped a switch to lower the orbiter's landing gear 500 feet above the runway.
Atlantis touched down on time at 9:44:23 a.m., followed by the nose gear at 9:44:36 and wheels stop at 9:45:05 a.m. The mission duration was 10 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes, 13 seconds. Atlantis traveled 4,490,138 statute miles over 171 orbits.
"Houston, Atlantis, wheels stopped," Hobaugh radioed as came to a rest on the centerline of the Shuttle Landing Facility.
"Roger, wheels stopped, Atlantis, that was a picture-perfect end to a top-fuel mission to the space station," replied astronaut Chris Ferguson from mission control at the Johnson Space Center. "Everybody, welcome back to Earth, especially you, Nicole."
STS-129 can only be characterized by the word "flawless". From a picture-perfect launch, possibly the cleanest in the history of the program through three EVA's that accomplished all primary and secondary tasks ahead of schedule, the orbiter and crew performed without a hiccup. Today was no exception.
For the first time in years, the forecast, which many times is "iffy" at best, called for clear skies and perfect weather. Some in mission control couldn't remember the last time clear skies were forecast for a Florida landing.
Atlantis' payload bay doors were closed this morning and the seven astronauts donned their orange launch and entry suits in preparation for the deorbit burn and landing.
Hobaugh and Wilmore fired the shuttle's twin Orbital Maneuvering System engines at 8:37 a.m. EST to slow the spacecraft by 211 miles per hour and send the ship on a slow, 30 minutes descent to the Earth's atmosphere and blistering re-entry.
The OMS engines, which have never failed, performed nominally again, firing for two minutes, 47 seconds before shutting down one last time for the mission. Then Hobaugh flipped Atlantis over to expose the black heat shield tiles on its belly to the brunt of re-entry heating.
Re-entry began with the first interaction of the tenuous upper atmosphere - an event called Entry Interface - at 9:13 a.m. The shuttle's trajectory took it over the South Pacific, northeast over South and Central America. Atlantis flew over the Gulf of Mexico before crossing into Florida over the Naples area on the way to Kennedy Space Center.
"This was just an amazing mission," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief of space operations. "An on-time launch, on-time landing."
"We really had truly an amazing mission," Hobaugh said after landing. "It was not us, it was not any single group, but it was just an incredible team from all around the nation.
"We were lucky, I mean, part of it's luck and part of it's just pure, great skill, workmanship in processing Atlantis, getting it ready for us. We had no hitches, we went off on time, we landed on time."
STS-129 was the 31st flight for Atlantis, the 129th mission in shuttle program history and the 31st shuttle flight dedicated to the assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station.
STS-129 is the 2nd flight to carry two African-American astronauts. The first was STS-116, which included Robert Curbeam and Joan Higginbotham.
The crew of STS-129 was led by veteran shuttle astronaut and commander Charlie Hobaugh. Assisting him on the flight deck will be pilot Barry Wilmore. The six-person crew is rounded out by mission specialists Leland Melvin (MS-1), Randy Bresnik (MS-2), Mike Foreman (MS-3) and Robert Satcher (MS-4).
Also, space station Expedition 21 flight engineer Nicole Stott (MS-5), who launched to the space station on STS-128 in August, returne to Earth on Atlantis at the end of the mission as the seventh member of the STS-129 crew. Stott's return marks the last time the shuttle will deliver or return space station resident crewmembers.
The main objective of the STS-129 mission was to deliver, install and checkout two large logistics pallets and their spare parts, and to prepare the station for the arrival of the Tranquility module, the final U.S.-built component of the station, which will be delivered on STS-130 in February. This was the first flight of an ExPRESS (Expedite the Processing of Experiments to Space Station) Logistics Carrier.
ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-1 launched with an Ammonia Tank Assembly (ATA), a Battery Charge Discharge Unit (BCDU), a Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) Latching End Effector (LEE), a Control Moment Gyro (CMG), a Nitrogen Tank Assembly (NTA), a Pump Module (PM), a Plasma Contactor Unit (PCU) and two empty Passive Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanisms (PFRAMs).
ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-2 launched with a High Pressure Gas Tank (HPGT), a Cargo Transport Container 1 (CTC-1) mounted to a Small Adapter Plate Assembly (SAPA), a Mobile Transporter/Trailing Umbilical System (MT/TUS), CMG, NTA, PM, Utility Transfer Assembly (UTA) Flight Support Equipment (FSE), one empty Payload PFRAM and MISSE-7, an experiment that will expose a variety of materials being considered for future spacecraft to the extreme conditions outside the station.
Orbital Replacement Units and Payloads Carried On ELC-1 include a new Ammonia Tank Assembly, whose primary function is to store the ammonia used by the External Thermal Control System. The major components in the ATA include two ammonia storage tanks, isolation valves, heaters, and various temperature, pressure, and quantity sensors. Filled with 600 pounds of ammonia, the unit weighs approximately 1,702 pounds.
Along with the ATA, ELC-1 houses a spare Nitrogen Tank Assembly, which uses high-pressure nitrogen gas to control the flow of ammonia out of the ATA.
Also mounted on ELC-1 is a new Battery Charger Discharge Unit bidirectional power converter that serves a dual function of charging the batteries during solar collection periods and providing conditioned battery power to the primary power buses during eclipse periods. Each BDU weighs 235 pounds. There are 24 BCDUs on orbit that are used for normal Power System operation.
Two of the most important spare components are the Control Moment Gyroscopes carried on ELC-1 and 2. The set of four CMGs balance the effects of gravity gradient, aerodynamic, and other disturbance torques (i.e., robotics, venting, and plume impingement), maintaining the station at an equilibrium attitude without using propellant. The CMGs can also be used to perform attitude maneuvers. The CMGs rely on electrical power provided by the solar powered electrical subsystem. Each CMG assembly weighs approximately 600 pounds and measures 45 inches wide, 48 inches high, and 54 inches in length.
ELC-1 also carries a spare Latching End Effector (LEE) , or "hand", for the Canadarm2 robotic arm and a new Plasma Contactor Unit which is used to disperse the electrical charge that builds up by providing an electrically conductive "ground path" to the plasma environment surrounding the ISS.
Finally, ELC-1 contains to mounting points call Passive Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanism (PFRAM) designed to accommodate payloads launched on other missions.
ELC-2 also carries a spare Control Moment Gyroscope and Nitrogen Tank Assembly. A high-pressure gas tank which will be used to store oxygen and a new pump module are also onboard along with other Orbital Replacement Units.
(the Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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