Last Flight of "Atlantis"

[Jolie Rouge]

Last 4 shuttle astronauts arrive for countdown
By MARCIA DUNN - AP Aerospace Writer | AP – Mon, July 4, 2011

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The four astronauts who will close out NASA's 30-year space shuttle program arrived Monday for their history-making launch week, saluting the nation's birthday and all those who contributed to Atlantis' final flight.

The launch countdown begins Tuesday. Liftoff is set for Friday at 11:26 a.m. before an estimated crowd of up to 1 million people.

Commander Christopher Ferguson and his crew received small American flags as launch director Mike Leinbach greeted them out on the runway. The four needed just two training jets for the flight from their training base in Houston. "This is a day that's decidedly American, a day where we kind of reflect on our independence and all the wonderful things that we really have as a part of being United States of America," said Ferguson, a retired Navy captain.

"It's wonderful that you've all came out to join us," he told the approximately 65 photographers and other journalists who swarmed the runway. He urged them to go and enjoy some barbecue, fireworks and apple pie.

Altogether, about 2,500 members of the news media have requested credentials to cover the launch. As of Monday, the estimated total crowd count also had risen: NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said between 750,000 and 1 million people now are expected to jam the area to witness the end to shuttle history.

That's considerably more than the crowds that showed up for Discovery's last liftoff in February and Endeavour's in May. The Endeavour send-off even attracted President Barack Obama and his entire family, but a launch delay in late April had him mingling instead with the shuttle crew and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the wounded wife of commander Mark Kelly.

A busy 12-day flight lies ahead, Ferguson said, making note of the abridged crew. Atlantis will make a supply run to the International Space Station, before joining Discovery and Endeavour in retirement. "When it's all over ... we'll be very proud to put the right-hand bookend on the space shuttle program," he said.

Added co-pilot Douglas Hurley: "We're so very proud to be here sharing our nation's birthday with you all and the folks here at Kennedy, and we just want to honor the entire Kennedy team that has worked on these magnificent machines over the last 30-plus years."

NASA hasn't launched so few shuttle astronauts since mission No. 6 in 1983. That's because there are no more shuttles left to retrieve them from the space station in the event of serious launch damage to Atlantis; the shuttle crew would have to be rescued by Russia's much smaller Soyuz capsules.

Americans will continue to hitch rides aboard Soyuz spacecraft to and from the space station, until private companies are able to launch their own spacecraft with crews. That's at least three to five years away.

The Obama administration wants NASA to focus on expeditions to an asteroid and Mars, instead of repeated trips to low-Earth orbit. There's not enough money to do both, shuttle program manager John Shannon told reporters last week. "We're sacrificing the shuttle to enable us to be able to take that next step," Shannon said. "If we were going to retire the shuttle, this is the time to do it," he said, noting that the space station is now completed and in good shape.

Despite the overriding significance of this last shuttle flight, astronaut Rex Walheim delighted in the little things Monday. "It's such a pleasure to come down here when you have a rocket on the pad and it's got your stuff loaded on it," he said with a wide grin.

The three men — all with military backgrounds — are joined on the crew by Sandra Magnus, a civilian scientist. Each has flown in space before.

___

Online: NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html


http://news.yahoo.com/last-4-shuttle-astronauts-arrive-countdown-190639040.html

[Jolie Rouge]

Storm delays final Atlantis inspections: NASA
By Joe Raedle | AFP – 2 hrs 30 mins ago

A thunderstorm delayed final inspections Thursday on the shuttle Atlantis as it prepares for liftoff on the historic last mission of the 30-year space shuttle program, NASA said.

Liftoff is scheduled for Friday at 11:26 am (1526 GMT), though the US space agency has warned that turbulent weather moving in from the Caribbean has left only a 30 percent chance of good launch conditions.

The skies turned an ominous gray and several thunderclaps rattled Kennedy Space Center as engineers attempted to do an early rollback at 12:00 pm (1600 GMT) of the rotating service structure around Atlantis on Thursday.

"The space shuttle launch team is evaluating a possible lightning strike within one third of a mile from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center," NASA said in a statement.

"Engineers will review data to determine if the lightning affected space shuttle Atlantis or any of the pad's ground support equipment," it added.

"A continuing band of thunderstorms has prevented teams from conducting a detailed pad inspection, which must be performed before the rotating service structure can be rolled back from the shuttle."

The rollback marks the last major movement of equipment on the launch pad before the shuttle takes off. It was originally planned for 2:00 pm (1800 GMT).

If weather forces a delay, other launch opportunities open on Saturday and Sunday. Atlantis's flight will mark the final mission of the 30-year space shuttle program.

http://news.yahoo.com/storm-delays-final-atlantis-inspections-nasa-183238923.html

[Jolie Rouge]

Space shuttle prepares to depart station for last time
By Chris Baltimore | Reuters – 1 hr 20 mins ago

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The crew of NASA's final space shuttle mission closed the hatch to the International Space Station for the final time on Monday in preparation for the shuttle's last flight back to Earth.

NASA is watching the path of Tropical Storm Bret off the Atlantic coast of Florida but it is not expected to interfere with Atlantis' planned landing at 5:57 a.m. EDT (0957 GMT) on Thursday.

Before floating through the shuttle's air lock for the final time, Atlantis' four crewmembers left behind two mementos to commemorate the shuttle program's 30-year history: a space shuttle model and an American flag that flew aboard Columbia on the first U.S. shuttle mission in 1981.

It was one in a string of many "lasts" in Atlantis' 13-day mission -- to be followed by the final undocking from the space station early on Tuesday and its scheduled predawn touch-down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday.

"We're closing a chapter in the history of our nation," space station flight engineer Ron Garan said in a ceremony marking the hatch closing.

The flag will remain affixed to the station's air lock until the air lock swings open to admit astronauts in future years who ride to the station aboard a capsule built by U.S. commercial companies, NASA said.

"We are going to be opening a new era and raising the flag on a new era of exploration," Garan said.

"Thank you for honoring the thousands of people that have been a part of the space shuttle program over the years," Megan McArthur radioed from Mission Control.

Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson was the last shuttle astronaut to leave the station before the shuttle's hatch closed for the final time.

Atlantis is the bookend of 98 previous shuttle missions that have deployed satellites and observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle's crowning accomplishment, NASA says, was carrying to orbit and constructing the space station -- a $100 billion project of 16 countries.

FOOD, CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT

Ferguson and his crew delivered more than 5 tonnes of food, clothing, equipment and other supplies that are meant to tide over the station until NASA's newly hired cargo delivery firms begin flying next year.

NASA, meanwhile, wants to ramp up development of a new capsule-style spacecraft and heavy-lift booster that can ferry people into deep space, beyond the station's orbit where the shuttles cannot fly.

NASA is supporting efforts by four firms -- Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin, a space travel start-up backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos -- with technology development contracts worth $269 million.

NASA hopes the new vehicles will be ready to fly in about 2015. Russia charges the United States more than $50 million per person for Soyuz capsule transportation and training.

The end of the program will hit central Florida, Houston and other shuttle operational hubs hard, with thousands of engineers and technicians due to lose their jobs shortly after Atlantis lands. "I get kind of freaked out and have this sinking feeling in my stomach that lasts five or 10 seconds," said lead shuttle flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho, who will complete his last shuttle shift on Tuesday. "Then I go back to doing an impersonation of a steely-eyed missile man."

http://news.yahoo.com/space-shuttle-prepares-depart-station-last-time-154322304.html

[Jolie Rouge]

Atlantis has landed, ending NASA's shuttle era
By Irene Klotz | Reuters – 3 hrs ago

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The space shuttle Atlantis glided home through a clear moonlit sky on Thursday to complete a 13-day cargo run to the International Space Station and a 30-year odyssey for NASA's shuttle program.

Commander Chris Ferguson gently steered the 100-tonne spaceship high overhead, then nose-dived toward the swamp-surrounded landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center, a few miles (kilometers) from where Atlantis will go on display as a museum piece.

Double sonic booms shattered the predawn silence around the space center, the last time residents will hear the distinctive sound of a shuttle coming home.

Ferguson eased Atlantis onto the runway at 5:57 a.m. EDT, ending a 5.2 million-mile (8.4 million-km) journey and closing a key chapter in human space flight history.

"Mission complete, Houston," Ferguson radioed to Mission Control.

Astronaut Barry Wilmore from Mission Control answered back, "We'll take this opportunity to congratulate you Atlantis, as well as the thousands of passionate individuals across this great space-faring nation who truly empowered this incredible spacecraft, which for three decades has inspired millions around the globe."

Atlantis' return from the 135th shuttle mission capped a 30-year program that made spaceflight appear routine, despite two fatal accidents that killed 14 astronauts and destroyed two of NASA's five spaceships.

The last accident investigation board recommended the shuttles be retired after construction was finished on the space station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations. That milestone was reached this year, leaving the orbiting research station as the shuttle program's crowning legacy.

Details of a follow-on program are still pending, but the objective is to build new spaceships that can travel beyond the station's 250-mile (400-km) orbit and send astronauts to the moon, asteroids and other destinations in deep space.

BACK-UP PLAN

The final shuttle crew included just four astronauts -- Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, flight engineer Rex Walheim and mission specialist Sandy Magnus -- rather than the typical six or seven astronauts, a precaution in case Atlantis was too damaged to safely attempt the return to Earth. With no more shuttles available for a rescue, NASA's backup plan was to rely on the smaller Russian Soyuz capsules.

At Cape Canaveral, 2,000 workers, journalists and VIPs waited by the runway to cheer the shuttle landing and greet the "final four" astronauts as they emerged from their ship.

"The things that you've done will set us up for exploration of the future," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told them.

Ferguson thanked the thousands of workers involved in the program over the years and said he hoped "this fantastic vehicle" would inspire a new generation of space explorers.

"Although we got to take the ride, we sure hope that everybody who has ever worked or touched or looked at or envied or admired a space shuttle was able to take just a little part of the journey with us," Ferguson said.

Thousands more employees gathered with their families to watch the landing on a giant television at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, home of Mission Control and NASA's main astronaut training facility. As the shuttle touched down, a cheer arose through the crowd that gathered outside the center's headquarters building.

But now that Atlantis is home, 3,200 of the shuttle program's 5,500 contract workers will lose their jobs on Friday. Within about a month, the contract workforce that totaled about 16,000 five years ago will tail off to about 1,000 who will oversee the transfer of Atlantis and sister ships Discovery and Endeavour to museums.

The shuttles' retirement opens the door for a new commercial space transportation industry, with NASA relying on U.S. firms to deliver cargo to the station starting next year and to fly its astronauts there by about 2015.

Until space taxis are available, Russia will take on the job of flying crews to the station, at a cost of more than $50 million per person.

The primary goal of Atlantis' flight was to deliver a year's worth of supplies to the station in case NASA's newly hired cargo suppliers, Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences Corp, encounter delays preparing their new vehicles for flight.

[Taterbo]

This a sad day for the space program...

I miss the "Boom" as it flew overhead on the way back to the Cape... It seems strange to think back and remember where you were when the first one lifted off and to witness the last one come home...

Also very sad so many will lose their jobs...Tough time in this economy..