Friday, 14 May at 20:20 CET with the U.S. Shuttle Atlantis astronauts šestereo went to his first space mission last? The launch was passed just fine with NASA's raketodroma in Florida. Six astronauts, Commander Kenneth Ham, pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers will spend twelve days and perform three space walks outside the demanding spacecraft. Estimated time of the merger with Atlantis International Space Station on Sunday. Disconnecting is scheduled for 23 May and return to Earth will be on Wednesday 26th of May.
The launch of Atlantis in the first final mission of the spacecraft into space
Atlantis in the cargo holds several tons of supplies, equipment, supplies, computers, antennas, batteries .. for the crew of the issue. The greatest burden, and also most difficult, the Russian module "Rassvet" (also known as MRM-1) which will become an integral part of the ISSA.
Six-member crew of the ISSU for a few days gets the right seasonal workers in the short time they have their hands full at the completion of the station. A handful of astronauts who are now in the universe already flown in space.
This would be the timetable should be the last flight of space shuttle Atlantis in space. By the end of the year only two launch aircraft from the "Space Shuttle" (Discovery and Endeavour). But perhaps not be so!
The Atlantis, although there is no planned flights into space when the 26th May came down to Earth spacecraft immediately started the process of preparing for the next flight!
After the shuttle Columbia disaster, NASA implemented safety measures in the sense that every launch of the reserves must be an aircraft that in cases where they first return from space (damaged thermal insulation) goes to rescue mission by astronauts.
Atlantis will also be ready to go just in case the astronauts in trouble. Let us hope that such missions will be needed.
But that's not the end of the story of Atlantis. Since the spacecraft will be fully ready for another flight into space, NASA had already started with the proposal that the second Atlantis last flew in space during the summer of next year. For this there are all the technical and financial requirements. If Congress approves the flight Atlantis will indeed your last flight into space to do with a reduced crew of only four astronauts. Specifically for him in that case there would be no spare aircraft that could possibly save astronauts from the damaged space shuttle, but they would in that case could go down to Earth additional Russian Soyuz missions. Soon forthcoming interview with the Russian Space Agency on the version, indeed the last flight of Atlantis before his departure to the museum.
Marino Tumpić