since first arriving at the Kennedy
Space Center 25 years ago space shuttle
Atlantis has made the four-mile Trek
from casey's vehicle assembly building
to its oceanside launchpads more than 30
times the fourth of NASA's five orbiters
Atlantis's career has not been lacking
in first 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 lantus will return to earth to
stay
following its mission on sts-132
the array of missions Atlantis is 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 and its maiden voyage sts 51 j lipid
and liftoff liftoff of Atlanta a new
orbiter joined the shuttle fleet and it
is clear but power commanded by shuttle
veteran Carol bako the classified
Department of Defense flight was the
first of five Pentagon missions Atlantis
completed after traveling more than a
million miles Atlantis landed at Edwards
Air Force Base just four days later on
october seven
later that year on justed second flight
atlanta set a shuttle record for the
least amount of time between missions on
November 26 orbiter headed back to space
on sts 61b just 50 days after completing
its previous flight making his first
spaceflight on that crew was mission
specialist and spacewalker Jerry Ross
who's seven career space flights
including five onboard Atlantis would
set a record matched by just one other
astronauts 3 communications satellites
were deployed during the flight during
two spacewalks loss 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 flu
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 1980s
in 1989 Atlantis was back in action
completing two missions to provide a
closer look at two neighboring planets
the primary payload for sts 30 and 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 and 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 the solar
system's largest planet and when it did
it became the first spacecraft to both
orbit and release a probe penetrate
through the atmosphere of an outer
planet it collected data on Jupiter and
its moons for the next eight years dr.
Reiner
meet on the 100 us man benefits
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on jun 27 1995 Atlantis embarked on a
mission which significantly expanded the
new era of international cooperation
two one and liftoff of the space shuttle
atlantis on a mission that will herald a
new day of international cooperation in
space control
sts 71 was the third mission of the
shuttle-mir program but Atlantis his
crew included cosmonauts Anatoly Sylvia
that Nikolai boo darin became the first
shuttle to dock with the russian space
station mir after 20 years our
spacecraft our dock in orbit again our
new era of space exploration has begun
the cruise conducted a host of
biomedical investigations and
transferred equipment commission also
marked the first on-orbit exchange of
shuttle crew members astronaut norm
thagard and cosmonauts Vladimir du jour
off and gennady stroke Allah who flew to
mirror on a Russian Soyuz vehicle return
to Earth on board Atlantis in a complex
orbital ballet solovyev and Aaron
captured these images from their Russian
Soyuz which undocked just minutes before
Atlantis departed mirror the union of
Atlantis and mirror created the largest
spacecraft to orbit the earth at that
time
it's that time for the spirit of every
picture wake up they don't have a great
point so we hope that works too
booster ignition and liftoff of Atlantis
on the third shuttle Mir docking
Atlantis visited me Ron its next six
flights the crew of the sts 76 mission
in march in 1996 included Shannon lucid
who became the first american woman to
live on mirror for 188 days 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 US
presence on mirror for the next two
years and astronauts Linda Godwin and
rich Clifford completed the first u.s.
spacewalk around to doc vehicles while
wearing jetpacks known as simplified a
4gb a rescue or safer's in the spacewalk
they attached for environmental payloads
to the mirrors docking module
Atlantis flew to mere three times in
1997 but the last of those flights sts
86 was in question up until it's
scheduled launch in September safety
concerns arose after a progress resupply
ship collided with mere a few months
earlier during an attempted manual
docking the collision damage the mirror
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
not only is the media station deemed to
be satisfactory a satisfactory life
support platform at this time but it is
anticipated that significant operational
and scientific experience is still to be
gained through continued joint
operations Atlantis dr. me Ron September
27th over the next six days the cruise
transferred consumables experiments and
other materials scott karaszewski and
Vladimir teach off also conducted the
first joint us-russian spacewalk
installing an external device to help
seal the breach inspector from the
vacuum of space the continuous US
presence on mere was preserved as
astronaut Dave wolf join the mirror crew
replacing Mike full who returned to
Earth on board Atlantis in two thousand
almost two years after zaria the first
component of the International Space
Station was launched from Kazakhstan
Atlantis completed a pair of missions
that were crucial to the development of
the ISS during sts 101 in may of 2,000
Atlantis's astronauts outfitted sorry
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-1 06 in September 2000 Atlantis
delivered supplies and says door was
open 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 on board the
ISS that remains unbroken
three two one zero and liftoff of space
shuttle atlantis with destiny Atlantis
return to the station in February 2001
on sds 98 to deliver destiny 28 foot
long us 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 in 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 to relocate pressurized mating
adapter number two from unity to a
temporary location on destiny
in july two thousand one lattice was
part of another station milestone the
primary objective on sts-1 04 was to
install the quest airlock the emblematic
front door of the station airlock would
become the main path to exit and reenter
the station for us spacewalks Mike
Earnhardt and Jim Riley completed three
spacewalks to help install an outfit
quest 230v a 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-1 10 in April the 5th
international space station assembly
flight for Atlantis the crew once again
included Jerry Ross making the last of
his seven space flights using the
shuttle and the station robotic arms the
combined Cruz install the s0 truss
segment the central piece of the
station's integrated trust 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 system in 2003 the loss
of the space shuttle Columbia and its
crew prompted the grounding of the
shuttle fleet for the second time in
history
following to return to flight missions
by space shuttle Discovery designed to
test safety procedures Atlanta stood
ready to support sts-1 15 in 2006 that
all four years to return to flight
mission have committed amount of work by
thousands of individuals to get the
shuttle program back where we are right
now and that on the verge of responding
the state family question we're ready to
get to work after several
weather-related delays Atlantis finally
headed skyward for the sts 115 mission
on sep tember nine 2006 the crew
conducted three spacewalks to install p3
p4 critical trust segments on the port
side of the station and a pair of solar
arrays
mission also mark the milestone for the
canadian space agency as astronauts
table acclaim became the first Canadian
astronaut to operate both the station's
robotic arm and the mobile base system
in space
sts 117 in june of 2007 closely mirrored
sts-1 15 with Atlantis and its crew
delivering s3 s4 the next trust segment
for the starboard side of the station
and its solar arrays commission also
included a space station crew rotation
astronaut clay Anderson became a member
of the station's expedition 15 crew
replacing sunny Williams whose 195 days
stay on the station set a new
long-duration spaceflight record for
women clipping the record set by Shannon
lucid on board mirror soul flight for
Atlantis and 2008 was sts-1 22 in
February the highlight of that 13 de
mission was the installation of the
European Space Agency's Columbus
laboratory astronauts Rex Walheim Stan
love and Han Schlegel also replaced
several components of station hardware
over the course of three spacewalks
liftoff observation and in may 2009 the
sts-125 mission became the first flight
in nine years for Atlantis to a
destination other than the International
Space Station iPad or computer no action
sts-125 was the final servicing mission
to the Hubble Space Telescope during the
13-day flight the crew outfitted Hubble
with two new imaging devices the cosmic
origins spectrograph and the wide field
planetary camera 3 / 5 complex
spacewalks the crew replaced and
upgraded many key components on the
venerable telescope giving double a new
lease on life and extending his vision
to beyond the limits of our solar system
with 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
space flight history
work that has yielded in measurable
benefits and allowed us to greatly
advance before
years of not
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getting a TV picture is real yes we are
getting a TV picture now that's one all
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