SINCE FIRST ARRIVING AT THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER IN APRIL 1985,
SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS HAS MADE THE FOUR MILE TREK FROM THE VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING
TO KSC'S OCEAN FRONT LAUNCH PADS MORE THAN THIRTY TIMES.
THE FOURTH OF NASA'S FIVE ORBITERS, ATLANTIS' CAREER HAS NOT BEEN LACKING IN FIRSTS,
AMONG THEM: THE FIRST SHUTTLE TO DEPLOY A PROBE TO ANOTHER PLANET; THE FIRST SHUTTLE TO DOCK
TO A SPACE STATION; AND THE FIRST SHUTTLE TO FLY WITH A "GLASS COCKPIT."
AND, NOW, ATLANTIS WILL LEAD THE SHUTTLE FLEET TO A FINAL FIRST,
AS IT BECOMES THE FIRST SPACE SHUTTLE TO COMPLETE ITS SCHEDULED FLIGHTS.
ATLANTIS IS SET TO RETURN TO EARTH TO STAY FOLLOWING ITS MISSION ON STS-132.
THE ARRAY OF MISSIONS ATLANTIS HAS FLOWN IS AS WIDE AS THE OCEANS ONCE SAILED
BY THE 20TH CENTURY RESEARCH VESSEL FOR WHICH IT WAS NAMED.
ATLANTIS HAS FLOWN MISSIONS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY, FOR INTERPLANETARY EXPLORATION
AND TO FOSTER INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.
ON OCTOBER THIRD 1985, ATLANTIS LAUNCHED FROM PAD 39A ON ITS MAIDEN VOYAGE, STS-51J.
COMMANDED BY SHUTTLE VETERAN KAROL BOBKO, THE CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE FLIGHT WAS THE FIRST OF FIVE D-O-D MISSIONS ATLANTIS COMPLETED.
AFTER TRAVELING MORE THAN ONE MILLION MILES,
ATLANTIS LANDED AT EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE JUST FOUR DAYS LATER ON OCTOBER SEVENTH.
LATER THAT YEAR, ON JUST ITS SECOND FLIGHT, ATLANTIS SET A SHUTTLE RECORD
FOR THE LEAST AMOUNT OF TIME BETWEEN MISSIONS.
ON NOVEMBER 26 THE ORBITER HEADED BACK TO SPACE ON STS-61B -
JUST FIFTY DAYS AFTER COMPLETING ITS PREVIOUS FLIGHT.
MAKING HIS FIRST SPACEFLIGHT ON THAT CREW WAS MISSION SPECIALIST AND SPACEWALKER JERRY ROSS -
WHOSE SEVEN CAREER SPACEFLIGHTS, INCLUDING FIVE ONBOARD ATLANTIS,
WOULD SET A RECORD MATCHED BY JUST ONE OTHER ASTRONAUT.
THREE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES WERE DEPLOYED DURING THE FLIGHT.
DURING TWO SPACEWALKS, ROSS AND WOODY SPRING ALSO CONDUCTED A CONSTRUCTION EXPERIMENT
TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF ASSEMBLING LARGE STRUCTURES IN SPACE.
THE SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT WAS AN EARLY PROVING GROUND FOR THE ENGINEERING
AND CONSTRUCTION OF FUTURE SPACE STATIONS.
DURING THE NEXT THREE YEARS ATLANTIS FLEW JUST ONE MISSION.
THE TRAGIC LOSS OF SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER AND ITS CREW IN JANUARY 1986 PROMPTED THE GROUNDING
OF ATLANTIS AND THE REST OF THE SHUTTLE FLEET UNTIL SEPTEMBER 1988.
IN 1989, ATLANTIS COMPLETED TWO MISSIONS
TO PROVIDE A CLOSER LOOK AT TWO NEIGHBORING PLANETS.
THE PRIMARY PAYLOAD FOR STS-30 IN MAY OF THAT YEAR WAS THE MAGELLAN SPACECRAFT -
DESIGNED TO CAPTURE RADAR IMAGES OF VENUS.
MAGELLAN, WHICH WAS THE FIRST INTERPLANETARY SPACECRAFT LAUNCHED FROM A SPACE SHUTTLE,
EASED INTO ORBIT AROUND VENUS IN AUGUST 1990 - MAPPING NINETY-EIGHT PERCENT
OF THE PLANET BEFORE ITS MISSION CAME TO AN END IN OCTOBER 1994.
FIVE MONTHS LATER, ON STS-34, ATLANTIS WAS BACK IN SPACE FOR THE DEPLOYMENT
OF THE GALILEO SPACECRAFT ON ITS VOYAGE TO JUPITER.
IT TOOK SIX YEARS FOR GALILEO TO ARRIVE AT JUPITER, AND WHEN IT DID,
IT BECAME THE FIRST SPACECRAFT TO BOTH ORBIT AND RELEASE A PROBE TO PENETRATE
THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE OF AN OUTER PLANET.
IT COLLECTED DATA ON JUPITER AND ITS MOONS FOR THE NEXT EIGHT YEARS.
ON JUNE 27, 1995 ATLANTIS EMBARKED ON A MISSION
WHICH SIGNIFICANTLY EXPANDED THE NEW ERA OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.
STS-71 WAS THE THIRD MISSION OF THE SHUTTLE-MIR PROGRAM.
BUT ATLANTIS, WHOSE CREW INCLUDED COSMONAUTS ANATOLY SOLOVYEV AND NIKOLAI BUDARIN,
BECAME THE FIRST SHUTTLE TO DOCK WITH THE RUSSIAN SPACE STATION MIR.
THE CREWS CONDUCTED A HOST OF BIOMEDICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND TRANSFERRED EQUIPMENT.
THE MISSION ALSO MARKED THE FIRST ON- ORBIT EXCHANGE OF SHUTTLE CREW MEMBERS.
ASTRONAUT NORM THAGARD AND COSMONAUTS VLADIMIR DEZHUROV AND GENNADY STREKALOV,
WHO FLEW TO MIR ON A RUSSIAN SOYUZ, RETURNED TO EARTH ONBOARD ATLANTIS.
IN A COMPLEX ORBITAL BALLET, SOLOVYEV AND BUDARIN CAPTURED THESE IMAGES
FROM THEIR RUSSIAN SOYUZ, WHICH UNDOCKED JUST BEFORE ATLANTIS DEPARTED MIR.
THE UNION OF ATLANTIS AND MIR CREATED THE LARGEST SPACECRAFT
TO ORBIT THE EARTH AT THAT TIME.
ATLANTIS VISITED MIR ON ITS NEXT SIX FLIGHTS.
THE CREW OF THE STS-76 MISSION IN MARCH OF 1996 INCLUDED SHANNON LUCID,
WHO BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN TO LIVE ON MIR.
HER 188-DAY STAY ONBOARD THE STATION SET AN AMERICAN LONG-DURATION SPACEFLIGHT RECORD
AT THE TIME, A RECORD FOR MOST DAYS IN SPACE BY A WOMAN
AND INITIATED A CONTINUOUS U.S. PRESENCE ON MIR FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS.
ASTRONAUTS LINDA GODWIN AND RICH CLIFFORD COMPLETED THE FIRST U.S. SPACEWALK
AROUND TWO DOCKED VEHICLES.
WHILE WEARING JET BACKPACKS KNOWN AS SIMPLIFIED AID FOR EVA RESCUE, OR SAFERS,
THEY ATTACHED FOUR ENVIRONMENTAL PAYLOADS TO THE MIR'S DOCKING MODULE.
ATLANTIS FLEW TO MIR THREE TIMES IN 1997.
BUT THE LAST OF THOSE FLIGHTS, STS-86,
WAS IN QUESTION UP UNTIL ITS SCHEDULED LAUNCH IN SEPTEMBER.
SAFETY CONCERNS AROSE AFTER A PROGRESS SUPPLY SHIP COLLIDED
WITH MIR A FEW MONTHS EARLIER DURING AN ATTEMPTED MANUAL DOCKING.
THE COLLISION DAMAGED THE MIR'S SPEKTR MODULE, WHICH HAD TO BE SEALED OFF FROM THE REST
OF THE STATION BECAUSE IT WAS LOSING PRESSURE.
ON THE DAY ATLANTIS WAS SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH,
NASA ADMINISTRATOR DAN GOLDIN SUMMARIZED HIS DECISION TO PROCEED WITH THE FLIGHT.
ATLANTIS DOCKED TO MIR ON SEPTEMBER 27TH.
OVER THE NEXT SIX DAYS THE CREWS TRANSFERRED CONSUMABLES, EXPERIMENTS AND OTHER MATERIALS.
SCOTT PARAZYNSKI AND VLADIMIR TITOV ALSO CONDUCTED THE FIRST JOINT U.S.-RUSSIAN SPACEWALK
- INSTALLING AN EXTERNAL DEVICE TO HELP SEAL THE BREACH IN SPEKTR FROM THE VACUUM OF SPACE.
THE CONTINUOUS U.S. PRESENCE ON MIR WAS PRESERVED
AS ASTRONAUT DAVE WOLF JOINED THE MIR CREW, REPLACING MIKE FOALE -
WHO RETURNED TO EARTH ONBOARD ATLANTIS.
IN 2000 - ALMOST TWO YEARS AFTER ZARYA - THE FIRST COMPONENT
OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION -- WAS LAUNCHED FROM KAZAKHSTAN,
ATLANTIS COMPLETED A PAIR OF MISSIONS THAT WERE INTEGRAL TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ISS.
DURING STS-101, IN MAY OF 2000, ATLANTIS' ASTRONAUTS OUTFITTED ZARYA FOR THE JULY ARRIVAL
OF THE ZVEZDA SERVICE MODULE - ESSENTIAL
FOR SUSTAINING THE FIRST LONG-DURATION EXPEDITION CREW.
AND, ON THE MISSION ATLANTIS BECAME THE FIRST SHUTTLE
TO EMPLOY THE NEW ADVANCED INSTRUMENTATION DISPLAY SYSTEM KNOWN AS THE GLASS COCKPIT.
ON STS-106 IN SEPTEMBER 2000, ATLANTIS DELIVERED SUPPLIES AND ZVEZDA WAS OPENED FOR BUSINESS
FOR THE FIRST TIME, IN PREPARATION FOR EXPEDITION ONE, THE STATION'S FIRST CREW.
THEIR ARRIVAL IN NOVEMBER MARKED THE START
OF A CONTINUOUS HUMAN PRESENCE ONBOARD THE ISS THAT REMAINS UNBROKEN.
ATLANTIS RETURNED TO THE STATION IN FEBRUARY 2001 ON STS-98 TO DELIVER DESTINY,
THE 28-FOOT LONG U.S. SCIENCE LABORATORY AND CENTERPIECE OF THE U.S SEGMENT OF THE OUTPOST.
DESTINY GREATLY INCREASED THE PRESSURIZED VOLUME OF THE STATION AND WOULD BE THE HOME
FOR SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS, LIVING AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL OF THE U.S. SEGMENT
AND ROBOTICS CONTROL FOR THE CANADARM2 ROBOTIC ARM.
BOB CURBEAM AND TOM JONES CONDUCTED THREE SPACEWALKS TO HELP INSTALL DESTINY
AND RELOCATE PRESSURIZED MATING ADAPTER-2 FROM UNITY TO A TEMPORARY LOCATION ON DESTINY.
IN JULY, 2001 ATLANTIS WAS PART OF ANOTHER STATION MILESTONE.
THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE ON STS-104 WAS TO INSTALL THE QUEST AIRLOCK -
THE FIGURATIVE FRONT DOOR OF THE STATION.
THE AIRLOCK WOULD BECOME THE MAIN PATH TO EXIT AND REENTER THE STATION FOR U.S. SPACEWALKS.
MIKE GERNHARDT AND JIM REILLY COMPLETED THREE SPACEWALKS TO HELP INSTALL AND OUTFIT QUEST.
THE THIRD EVA - THE FIRST EVER USING QUEST - OCCURRED ON THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY
OF HUMANITY'S FIRST LANDING ON THE MOON.
THE FIRST MISSION FOR ATLANTIS IN 2002 WAS STS-110, IN APRIL -
THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ASSEMBLY FLIGHT FOR ATLANTIS.
THE CREW ONCE AGAIN INCLUDED JERRY ROSS - MAKING THE LAST OF HIS SEVEN SPACEFLIGHTS.
USING THE SHUTTLE AND THE STATION ROBOTIC ARMS,
THE COMBINED CREWS INSTALLED THE S-ZERO TRUSS SEGMENT -
THE CENTRAL PIECE OF THE STATION'S INTEGRATED TRUSS STRUCTURE - THE BACKBONE OF THE ISS.
ALSO DELIVERED WAS THE MOBILE TRANSPORTER; A RAILCAR-LIKE DEVICE DESIGNED TO MOVE BACK
AND FORTH ALONG THE TRUSS STRUCTURE.
IN 2003, THE LOSS OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA AND HER CREW PROMPTED THE GROUNDING
OF THE SHUTTLE FLEET FOR THE SECOND TIME IN HISTORY.
FOLLOWING TWO RETURN TO FLIGHT MISSIONS BY SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY TO TEST SAFETY PROCEDURES,
ATLANTIS STOOD READY TO SUPPORT STS-115 IN 2006.
AFTER SEVERAL WEATHER-RELATED DELAYS, ATLANTIS FINALLY HEADED SKYWARD
FOR THE STS-115 MISSION ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2006.
THE CREW CONDUCTED THREE SPACEWALKS TO INSTALL P3/P4 - CRITICAL TRUSS SEGMENTS ON THE PORT SIDE
OF THE STATION AND A PAIR OF SOLAR ARRAYS.
THE MISSION ALSO MARKED A MILESTONE FOR THE CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY,
AS ASTRONAUT STEVE MACLEAN BECAME THE FIRST CANADIAN ASTRONAUT
TO OPERATE BOTH THE STATION'S ROBOTIC ARM AND MOBILE BASE SYSTEM IN SPACE.
STS-117, IN JUNE 2007, CLOSELY MIRRORED STS-115 - WITH ATLANTIS AND ITS CREW DELIVERING S3/S4,
THE NEXT TRUSS SEGMENT FOR THE STARBOARD SIDE OF THE STATION AND ITS SOLAR ARRAYS.
THE MISSION ALSO INCLUDED A SPACE STATION CREW ROTATION.
ASTRONAUT CLAY ANDERSON BECAME A MEMBER OF THE STATION'S EXPEDITION 15 CREW -
REPLACING SUNI WILLIAMS, WHOSE 195-DAY STAY
ON THE STATION SET A NEW LONG DURATION SPACE FLIGHT RECORD FOR WOMEN -
ECLIPSING THE RECORD SET BY SHANNON LUCID ONBOARD MIR.
THE SOLE FLIGHT FOR ATLANTIS IN 2008 WAS STS-122, IN FEBRUARY.
THE HIGHLIGHT OF THAT 12-DAY MISSION WAS THE INSTALLATION
OF THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S COLUMBUS LABORATORY.
ASTRONAUTS REX WALHEIM, STAN LOVE AND HANS SCHLEGEL ALSO REPLACED SEVERAL COMPONENTS
OF STATION HARDWARE OVER THE COURSE OF THREE SPACEWALKS.
AND IN MAY, 2009 THE STS-125 MISSION WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT IN NINE YEARS FOR ATLANTIS
TO A DESTINATION OTHER THAN THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
STS-125 WAS THE FINAL SERVICING MISSION TO THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE.
DURING THE 12 DAY FLIGHT, THE CREW OUTFITTED HUBBLE WITH TWO NEW IMAGING DEVICES -
THE COSMIC ORIGINS SPECTROGRAPH AND THE WIDE FIELD PLANETARY CAMERA-3.
OVER FIVE COMPLEX SPACEWALKS, THE CREW REPLACED AND UPGRADED MANY KEY COMPONENTS
ON THE VENERABLE TELESCOPE, GIVING HUBBLE A NEW LEASE ON LIFE AND EXTENDING ITS VISION
TO BEYOND THE LIMITS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM WITH A CLARITY ONCE THOUGHT TO BE INCONCEIVABLE.
ATLANTIS HAS TRAVELED MORE THAN 115 MILLION MILES IN THE PURSUIT OF EXPLORATION.
ITS LEGACY ENABLED NASA AND ITS INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS TO ACCOMPLISH SOME
OF THE MOST COMPLEX WORK IN HUMAN HISTORY, WORK THAT HAS YIELDED IMMEASURABLE BENEFITS
AND ALLOWED US TO GREATLY ADVANCE THE FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE.