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Space Shuttle Atlantis Returns to Earth
NewsMax.com Wires Saturday, June 23, 2007
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned
to Earth safely Friday, ending a two-week mission to deliver an addition to
the international space station and bring a crew member home from the
outpost.
Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided to a stop at 12:49 p.m. on a runway
at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers had hoped to land the
shuttle in Florida, but bad weather forced them to abandon that plan.
"Welcome back," Mission Control told Atlantis. "Congratulations on a great
mission." Controllers praised the crew for providing a "stepping stone to
the rest of NASA's exploration plan."
Atlantis' return from NASA's first manned flight of the year was marked by
its trademark twin sonic booms that were heard from San Diego to Los
Angeles. After deploying its parachute, the shuttle came to rest on the
concrete runway under mostly sunny skies.
Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams returned to Earth on Atlantis after
spending more than six months at the space station. She set an endurance
record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days. During her
stay, she also set the record for most time spacewalking by a woman.
She told reporters two days before landing that she looked forward to a
slice of pizza and walking on the beach with her husband and dog, Gorby. But
she was going to miss the space station.
"When you've been somewhere for six months, it becomes your home and it's
hard to leave," Williams said.
Returning with Williams were Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow, pilot Lee
Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven
Swanson and Danny Olivas.
Atlantis delivered a 35,000-pound addition to the space station and Clay
Anderson, who replaced Williams as the U.S. representative at the station.
He will live with cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov for the next
four months.
The last time a shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base was in 2005, the
first flight after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Atlantis' landing was the
51st time a shuttle has touched down in the Mojave Desert.
While at the space station, the astronauts installed a new truss segment,
unfurled a new pair of power-generating solar arrays and activated a
rotating joint that allows the new solar arrays to track the sun.
The shuttle originally had been scheduled to launch in mid-March, but a hail
storm a few weeks beforehand forced NASA to scrub that date. The shuttle was
moved back to its hangar so that technicians could make repairs to thousands
of dings on its external fuel tank.
Atlantis lifted off on June 8. NASA hopes to have three more launches this
year.
Two days were added to the 11-day mission so that Olivas could staple up a
thermal blanket that had peeled back during launch. An extra spacewalk - the
fourth of the mission - was added to get the task done.
The mission was extended to 14 days after weather prevented Atlantis from
landing on Thursday.
Computers that control orientation and oxygen production on the Russian side
of the space station crashed while Atlantis was at the outpost, forcing NASA
officials to talk publicly about the remote possibility that the station
would have to be abandoned because of the problem. Engineers in Houston and
Moscow worked around the clock to come up with a fix.
Atlantis' thrusters helped maintain the station's orientation until the
computers resumed operating last weekend. Some lights, computers and cameras
were turned off Atlantis to extend the power supply in case an extra day was
needed at the station to give engineers on the ground more time to figure
out what went wrong.
The station's computers were restored when Yurchikhin and Kotov used a cable
to bypass a circuit board. The shuttle wasn't cleared to undock from the
station until the computers had passed a test to control thrusters on the
station's Russian side.
Space Shuttle Atlantis Returns to Earth
NewsMax.com Wires Saturday, June 23, 2007
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned
to Earth safely Friday, ending a two-week mission to deliver an addition to
the international space station and bring a crew member home from the
outpost.
Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided to a stop at 12:49 p.m. on a runway
at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers had hoped to land the
shuttle in Florida, but bad weather forced them to abandon that plan.
"Welcome back," Mission Control told Atlantis. "Congratulations on a great
mission." Controllers praised the crew for providing a "stepping stone to
the rest of NASA's exploration plan."
Atlantis' return from NASA's first manned flight of the year was marked by
its trademark twin sonic booms that were heard from San Diego to Los
Angeles. After deploying its parachute, the shuttle came to rest on the
concrete runway under mostly sunny skies.
Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams returned to Earth on Atlantis after
spending more than six months at the space station. She set an endurance
record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days. During her
stay, she also set the record for most time spacewalking by a woman.
She told reporters two days before landing that she looked forward to a
slice of pizza and walking on the beach with her husband and dog, Gorby. But
she was going to miss the space station.
"When you've been somewhere for six months, it becomes your home and it's
hard to leave," Williams said.
Returning with Williams were Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow, pilot Lee
Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven
Swanson and Danny Olivas.
Atlantis delivered a 35,000-pound addition to the space station and Clay
Anderson, who replaced Williams as the U.S. representative at the station.
He will live with cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov for the next
four months.
The last time a shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base was in 2005, the
first flight after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Atlantis' landing was the
51st time a shuttle has touched down in the Mojave Desert.
While at the space station, the astronauts installed a new truss segment,
unfurled a new pair of power-generating solar arrays and activated a
rotating joint that allows the new solar arrays to track the sun.
The shuttle originally had been scheduled to launch in mid-March, but a hail
storm a few weeks beforehand forced NASA to scrub that date. The shuttle was
moved back to its hangar so that technicians could make repairs to thousands
of dings on its external fuel tank.
Atlantis lifted off on June 8. NASA hopes to have three more launches this
year.
Two days were added to the 11-day mission so that Olivas could staple up a
thermal blanket that had peeled back during launch. An extra spacewalk - the
fourth of the mission - was added to get the task done.
The mission was extended to 14 days after weather prevented Atlantis from
landing on Thursday.
Computers that control orientation and oxygen production on the Russian side
of the space station crashed while Atlantis was at the outpost, forcing NASA
officials to talk publicly about the remote possibility that the station
would have to be abandoned because of the problem. Engineers in Houston and
Moscow worked around the clock to come up with a fix.
Atlantis' thrusters helped maintain the station's orientation until the
computers resumed operating last weekend. Some lights, computers and cameras
were turned off Atlantis to extend the power supply in case an extra day was
needed at the station to give engineers on the ground more time to figure
out what went wrong.
The station's computers were restored when Yurchikhin and Kotov used a cable
to bypass a circuit board. The shuttle wasn't cleared to undock from the
station until the computers had passed a test to control thrusters on the
station's Russian side.
