Today, NASA managers formally cleared space shuttle Atlantis for launch May 14 to deliver supplies and a Russian-built research module to the International Space Station. Liftoff of Atlantis is scheduled for 2:20 p.m. EDT on what will likely be the ship's final mission to space, becoming the first of NASA's three orbiters to make its last flight as the agency works to retire the fleet sometime late this year or early in 2011.
STS-132 MISSION SUMMARY | READ (PDF) STS-132 OFFICIAL FLIGHT KIT | READ (PDF) "We're ready to go," NASA Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said. "And we're feeling good about Atlantis launching a week from Friday." "We had a very thorough review today. We went through all the things that happened on the vehicle, both the shuttle and also the station," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations. "The vehicle is ready to go fly. It's a true testament to the work the teams have done down here at [Kennedy]." Atlantis' primary payload is the Russian Mini Research Module 1, named Rassvet, tucked inside the shuttle's payload bay. The new module will be used to house science experiments, provide extra storage space. Attached to the nadir, Earth-facing port of the Zarya module, MRM-1 includes a new airlock that station crewmembers will use to exit ISS when performing maintenance outside the complex. Twenty-three feet long and weighing over 17,000 pounds, MRM-1 will carry important hardware on its exterior including a radiator, airlock and a European robotic arm. Atlantis also will deliver addi-tional station hardware stored inside a cargo carrier. Three spacewalks are planned to stage spare components outside the station, including six spare batteries, a Ku-band antenna and spare parts for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm. Shuttle mission STS-132 is the final sched-uled flight for Atlantis . A crew of six astronauts will fly STS-132. Ken Ham, who first flew as pilot on STS-124, is the shuttle's commander. The pilot is Tony Antonelli. There are four mission specialists – former ISS Expedition 17 flight engineer Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, recently returned from servicing the Hubble Space Telescope on STS-125, Stephen Bowen and Piers Sellers. Although Atlantis will be readied for another possible mission as the Launch-On-Need rescue flight for STS-134, the last shuttle mission, STS-132 is the orbiter's final scheduled mission before decommissioning. Atlantis lifted off on its maiden voyage on Oct. 3, 1985, on mission 51-J. Later missions included the launch of the Magellan probe to Venus on STS-30 in May 1989, Galileo interplanetary probe to Jupiter on STS-34 in October 1989, the first shuttle docking to the Mir Space Station on STS-71 in June 1995 and the final Hubble servicing mission on STS-125 in May 2009. Atlantis is named after a two-masted sailing ship that was operated for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute from 1930 to 1966. STS-132 is Atlantis’ 32nd flight and its 11th flight to the station. (The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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