Today marks the end of an era. Three
decades of missions came to a close this morning as the Space Shuttle
Atlantis touched down in Florida after a 13-day trip to the
International Space Station. All told, the 135 space shuttle missions
have racked up more than 542 million miles in low earth orbit. Commander
Chris Ferguson piloted the Atlantis to a safe landing at 5:52 a.m., and
the spacecraft will soon undergo processing and decommissioning. It has
been an emotional experience for residents and workers along Florida's
Space Coast -- some 9,000 shuttle engineers, technicians, and other
staff are being laid off, and the main tourism draw for the area has
come to an end. Shown here, for one last time, is a look at a full
shuttle mission, STS-135, the final flight of Atlantis. Also, be sure to
see The History of the Space Shuttle, an earlier entry on In Focus. [39 photos]
NASA astronaut Doug Hurley waits in a pressure chamber before a test of
his Sokol space suit at the Zvezda facility on Wednesday, March 30,
2011, in Moscow. The crew of the final shuttle mission traveled to
Moscow for a suit fit check of their Russian Soyuz suits that will be
required in the event of an emergency. (NASA/Houston Chronicle) # 
The STS-135 crew practices rendezvous and docking with the
International Space Station in the Systems Engineering Simulator at the
Johnson Space Center at the Johnson Space Center on Tuesday, June 28,
2011, in Houston, Texas. Commander Chris Ferguson is at back left,
mission specialist Rex Walheim is at back right. Pilot Doug Hurley is at
center. (NASA/Houston Chronicle) #
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Space Shuttle Program's
final solid rocket booster assembly is stationed in the transfer aisle
of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The right and left forward assemblies,
which were refurbished and processed at Kennedy, are comprised of three
components -- nose cap, frustum and forward skirt. Inside the Vehicle
Assembly Building, the boosters will be stacked and then joined to an
external fuel tank and space shuttle Atlantis for the STS-135 mission to
the International Space Station.(NASA/Frank Michaux) #
Bathed in xenon lights, space shuttle Atlantis embarks on its final
journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It took the crawler-transporter about
six hours to carry the shuttle, attached to its external fuel tank and
solid rocket boosters, to the seaside launch pad. (NASA/Kim Shiflett) #
Chris Bray and his father were able to attend the very first Space
Shuttle launch in 1981 (left), when he was 13 years old. Some thirty
years later, the two were able to attend the final launch as well, and
recreated the original image. Bray uploaded this pair of photos to
Flickr last week, and it quickly went viral, touching the hearts of
thousands around the world. Original here. (CC-BY-NC-ND Chris Bray) #
Entry flight director Tony Ceccacci (left) reaches over a console for a
congratulatory hand shake with NASA managers Norm Knight (right) and
John McCullough after the successful launch of NASA space shuttle
Atlantis at Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center July 08, 2011
in Houston, Texas. (Bill Stafford/NASA via Getty Images) #
One of the four STS-135 crewmembers took this photo from space shuttle
Atlantis' aft flight deck during the mission's second day of activities
in Earth orbit. Earth's horizon and aft sections of the shuttle frame
the orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) on the starboard side of the
spacecraft shortly before it was remotely maneuvered into position to
start survey of the spacecraft's thermal protection system (TPS). (NASA) #
The Great Salt Lake in Utah serves as a striking visual marker for the
STS-135 astronauts orbiting over North America in the space shuttle
Atlantis on July 9, 2011. A sharp line across the lake's center is
caused by the restriction in water flow from the railroad causeway. The
eye-catching colors of the lake stem from the fact that Great Salt Lake
is hypersaline, typically 3-5 times saltier than the ocean. (NASA) #
The small object at left is the International Space Station, which
would appear as the only recognizable object in this dark image if it
were not for the moon in the upper right. The photo was taken by one of
the four crewmembers aboard the space shuttle Atlantis as it and the
station gradually approached each other for a docking on July 10, 2011. (NASA) #
This is one of a series of images showing various parts of the space
shuttle Atlantis in Earth orbit as photographed by one of three crew
members -- half the station crew -- who were equipped with still cameras
for this purpose on the International Space Station as the shuttle
"posed" for photos and visual surveys and performed a back-flip for the
rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM). (NASA) #
This image, photographed by NASA astronaut Ron Garan during the
spacewalk conducted on July 12, 2011, shows the International Space
Station with space shuttle Atlantis docked at right and a Russian Soyuz
docked to Pirs, below the sun at far left. In the center foreground is
the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment installed during the
STS-134 mission. AMS is a state-of-the-art particle physics detector
designed to use the unique environment of space to advance knowledge of
the universe and lead to the understanding of the universe's origin by
searching for antimatter and dark matter, and measuring cosmic rays. (NASA) #
With his feet secured on a restraint on the space station remote
manipulator system's robotic arm or Canadarm2, NASA astronaut Mike
Fossum holds the Robotics Refueling Mission payload, which was the focus
of one of the primary chores accomplished on a six and a half hour
spacewalk on July 12. NASA astronauts Fossum and Ron Garan performed the
six-hour, 31-minute spacewalk, which represents the final scheduled
extravehicular activity during shuttle missions. (NASA) #
This view of the space shuttle Atlantis while still docked with the
International Space Station was taken by a crew member aboard the
station on the final day of joint activities between the crew members
for the STS-135 and Expedition 28 missions, July 18, 2011. Earth's
airglow is seen as a thin line above Earth's horizon. (NASA) #
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.