KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - With a picture-perfect, yet bittersweet, liftoff today for space shuttle Atlantis, the middle child of NASA's orbiter fleet began the final scheduled mission of its 25 year career before returning to Earth one last time and being decommissioned as the space agency continues with plans to retire the entire fleet by the end of the year. (Photo caption: Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off on mission STS-132. Photo Credit: Jim Siegel) STS-132 LAUNCH DAY PHOTO GALLERY BY JIM SIEGEL STS-132 PRESS KIT (PDF) STS-132 MISSION SUMMARY (PDF) STS-132 OFFICIAL FLIGHT KIT (PDF) NASA TV MISSION SCHEDULE (PDF) FREE VIDEO ASCENT FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM REPLAY • WATCH ASTROVAN DRIVES BY THE VAB ON WAY TO THE LAUNCH PAD • WATCH FLIGHT DAY 1 CREW CHOICE VIDEO DOWNLINK • WATCH CREW WALKOUT • WATCH EXTERNAL TANK HANDHELD REPLAY • WATCH FLIGHT DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS • WATCH LAUNCH REPLAYS • WATCH ATLANTIS BLASTS OFF TO BEGIN STS-132 • WATCH OUR VIDEO OF LAUNCH WITH ENHANCED AUDIO - NO COMMENTARY • WATCH OUR VIDEO OF LAUNCH WITH ENHANCED AUDIO - WITH COMMENTARY • WATCH OUR VIDEO OF THE LAUNCH OF ATLANTIS • WATCH TIMELAPSE VIDEO OF RSS RETRACTION • WATCH ALL-ACCESS MEMBER VIDEO DOWNLOADS ASCENT FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM REPLAY • DOWNLOAD ASTROVAN DRIVES BY THE VAB ON WAY TO THE LAUNCH PAD& • DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY 1 CREW CHOICE VIDEO DOWNLINK • DOWNLOAD CREW WALKOUT • DOWNLOAD EXTERNAL TANK HANDHELD REPLAY • DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS • DOWNLOAD ATLANTIS BLASTS OFF TO BEGIN STS-132 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 1 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 2 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 3 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 4 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 5 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 6 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 7 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 8 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 9 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 10 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 11 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 12 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 13 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 14 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 15 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 16 • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE - PART 17 • DOWNLOAD OUR VIDEO OF LAUNCH WITH ENHANCED AUDIO - NO COMMENTARY • DOWNLOAD OUR VIDEO OF LAUNCH WITH ENHANCED AUDIO - WITH COMMENTARY • DOWNLOAD OUR VIDEO OF THE LAUNCH OF ATLANTIS • DOWNLOAD LONGER VIDEO OF THE LAUNCH OF ATLANTIS • DOWNLOAD LAUNCH REPLAYS • DOWNLOAD POSTLAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE • DOWNLOAD REAL-TIME VIDEO OF RSS RETRACTIONS • DOWNLOAD TIMELAPSE VIDEO OF RSS RETRACTION • DOWNLOAD PRELAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE • DOWNLOAD COUNTDOWN PREVIEW BRIEFING MAY 11 • DOWNLOAD CREW ARRIVAL FOR LAUNCH • DOWNLOAD INTERVIEWS WITH LEAD ISS FLIGHT DIRECTOR EMILY NELSON • DOWNLOAD INTERVIEWS WITH LEAD SHUTTLE FLIGHT DIRECTOR MIKE SARAFIN • DOWNLOAD POST-FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW NEWS CONFERENCE • DOWNLOAD STS-132 BEHIND THE SCENES - VOLUME 1 • DOWNLOAD STS-132 BEHIND THE SCENES - VOLUME 2 • DOWNLOAD STS-132 CREW TRAINING RESOURCE REEL • DOWNLOAD STS-132 MISSION OVERVIEW • DOWNLOAD STS-132 PRELAUNCH VIDEO B-ROLL • DOWNLOAD The shuttle and its crew of six veteran astronauts rocketed away from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39-A at 2:20 p.m. EDT with a cargo of replacement batteries and the small Russian module, as well as equipment and supplies for the station. Riding a 600-foot tongue of flame and pastel-colored smoke, Atlantis's thunderous roar boomed across Florida's Space Coast as the shuttle climbed to orbit through nearly cloudless skies on a warm Spring afternoon. Two minutes after launch, the twin solid rocket boosters burned out and were jettisoned, having performed their job providing six and a half million pounds of first-stage thrust through the dense lower atmosphere. Six and a half minutes later, the orbiter's three liquid-fueled main engines shutdown on time as Atlantis settled into a safe orbit and the beginning of its 13-day mission to the International Space Station. "Launch was just phenomenal," said Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier during a postlaunch news conference. He cited the launch and processing teams' hard work in preparing Atlantis for liftoff, even with a tighter timeframe after the vehicle's rollout to Launch Pad 39A was delayed in late April due to weather. "The teams stayed focused, they kept moving forward and they just did a great job," Gerstenmaier added. "The vehicle looks like it's in really good shape. We're ready to go do the very challenging mission in front of us." Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers are scheduled to spend more than seven days at the station. During that time Reisman, Bowen and Good will perform a total of three spacewalks. Atlantis' on-time liftoff followed a countdown remarkably free of problems. A small stress fracture spotted on an umbilical strut during the vehicle's final inspection is not unusual, according to Mike Moses, chair of the prelaunch Mission Management Team. Moses also mentioned an issue that was brought up during the countdown's final hold, concerning a ball bearing found days earlier in the shuttle's payload bay. The bearing was determined to likely be a part of a camera system, and was ultimately ruled out as a concern. And although weather is a frequent prelaunch topic at the Florida launch site, the day started out with a 70 percent "go" forecast, which improved to 90 percent "go" by launch time. "It was a great launch today," said Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "I'm very, very proud of the team. It's the start of a good mission." An indication of the maturity of the space shuttle program, the launch processing teams and vehicle, today's launch appeared at first glance to be one of, if not the, cleanest ascent yet from the standpoint of foam or other debris shedding during the ride to space. A camera mounted on the orange external fuel tank showed almost no indication of anything coming off the tank that could have posed an impact danger to Atlantis. Mission control notified the crew aboard Atlantis this evening that the launch appeared to be very clean. Of course, engineers on the ground will spend days poring over data and high-resolution photos to ensure that Atlantis is in good shape following its bone-rattling launch. Atlantis is scheduled to dock with ISS at 10:27 a.m. EDT Sunday morning. The six STS-132 astronauts will be greeted by the Expedition 23 crew of Commander Oleg Kotov and Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson. The primary payload for STS-132 is the Russian-built Mini-Research Module-1, named Rassvet - the Russian word for "Dawn". Rassvet is to be installed on the Earth-facing port of the station’s Zarya module by Reisman and Sellers, using the station’s Canadarm2. Atlantis is also carrying an Integrated Cargo Carrier with a spare communications antenna for the space station and six new batteries. STs-132 features three spacewalks while Atlantis is docked with the space station. Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good and Steve Bowen will spend a total of 19.5 hours outside the station on flight days 4, 6 and 8. Bowen, who performed three spacewalks totaling 19 hours and 56 minutes during the STS-126 mission in 2008, will wear a spacesuit marked with a red stripe. He’ll act as lead on the second spacewalk. Good, who spent 15 hours and 58 minutes working on the Hubble Space Telescope during STS-125 in 2009, will wear a suit with a band of red and white barber pole stripes and take the lead position on the third spacewalk. And Reisman, who took part in one spacewalk during the STS-123 mission in 2008, will sport an all-white spacesuit. He’ll lead the first spacewalk. The focus of the first of the three spacewalks, by Reisman and Bowen, is installation of the spare space-to-ground antenna and a spare parts platform on Dextre, the robot-like Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. They also will loosen battery bolts on the port-6 truss in preparation for the other spacewalks. Once they’ve made their way out of the Quest airlock, Reisman and Bowen will move to a pallet of equipment brought up inside the shuttle’s cargo bay and moved to the robotic arm’s mobile base during flight day 3. At the pallet, Bowen will prepare the space-toground antenna dish for removal, then he and Reisman will each release four of the eight bolts holding the boom of the antenna onto the pallet. The spacewalkers will meet back up at the Z1 segment of the truss and Bowen will install the antenna boom by driving two mounting bolts, and then begin connecting six power and data cables to the antenna while Reisman rides the robotic arm back to the pallet to retrieve the antenna dish, a task that will require removing two more bolts. Installing the antenna dish will require the spacewalkers to secure four bolts, then Reisman will connect two final cables. The second spacewalk, by Good and Bowen, will be devoted to replacement of three of six batteries on the port truss with the new ones brought up by Atlantis. The third spacewalk by Reisman and Good will swap out the final three batteries. Bowen and Good will replace three of the six batteries on the B side of the P6 solar array during this spacewalk - each of the two wings of the four solar arrays at the space station are designated either A or B. The six batteries on the A side of the P6 were replaced on STS-127. The new batteries will be designated by letters A through F, and the old batteries numbered one through six. After removing two bolts, Good will hand battery 1 off, get out of the foot restraint he was working in, move closer to Bowen and take hold of the battery again. Bowen will then release the battery, move slightly further down the truss and position himself to take hold of the battery. Good will hand the battery to Bowen and then move himself closer to once again take hold and control the battery. The process is called "shepherding," and might appear as though the spacewalkers are "inch-worming" along the truss, except that one person is always holding a 367-pound battery. Good and Reisman will spend the third and final spacewalk finishing up the battery swap work that Good and Bowen started. Atlantis is scheduled to end its service with a landing at Kennedy Space Center at 8:46 a.m. EDT, capping a career spanning two and a half decades and 120 million miles orbiting Earth. While the orbiter will be prepped as is normal for a possible rescue mission for the final shuttle flight, Endeavour on STS-134 in November, STs-132 is likely to be her last flight. (The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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