Space Shuttle Atlantis

Atlantis Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle Atlantis First Flight

Space Shuttle Atlantis' First Flight

Of all the missions flown by the space shuttle Atlantis, its 14th and 33rd flights were the most symbolic.

Atlantis’ 14th mission, which launched on June 27, 1995, represented a breakthrough in international space cooperation. For the first time, an American space shuttle docked with the Russian space station Mir. It was the first joint space docking between the two nations since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project 20 years earlier.

During its five-day visit to the station, Atlantis dropped off a replacement crew of two cosmonauts, Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin. The space shuttle also brought home NASA astronaut Norm Thagard and Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov.

The flight symbolized how closely the nations were working together in space after decades of bitter rivalry. Atlantis would fly to Mir six more times over the next two years, helping to forge a relationship that would prove invaluable in the later construction of the International Space Station (ISS).

The orbiter would go on to play a major role in ISS construction, flying 12 missions to the facility. Among other precise cargo, Atlantis carried the U.S. Destiny lab, the Quest Joint Airlock, and the European Columbus Laboratory.

In addition to its space station duties, Atlantis also launched the Galileo spacecraft, which explored Saturn, and Magellan, which mapped Venus. The orbiter also launched the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and conducted the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The space shuttle Atlantis’s 33rd and final mission was the most poignant. The July 8, 2011 launch was the 135th and last mission of the space shuttle program. No more would orbiters roar off the pad at Cape Canaveral. A 30-year era that had seen great triumphs and the tragic losses of Challenger and Columbia and their 14 crew members was coming to a bittersweet end.

The flight had not been on NASA’s original schedule. However, two private companies hired to deliver supplies to ISS had fallen behind schedule and Congress wanted to keep the shuttle program flying a bit longer to postpone painful layoffs.

NASA wasn’t about to trust this missions to rookies. Commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim were all veteran fliers, with seven missions between them.

Normally, the shuttle would fly with a crew of six or seven. However, there was no backup shuttle available for a rescue mission on this last flight. If they ran into trouble, the four astronauts would have to make it to ISS and wait to be rotated home on Russian Soyuz vehicles over the next year.

Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. Aside from a brief hold at T minus 31 seconds, the flight went flawlessly. Atlantis docked with ISS two days after launch and spent nearly 9 days dropping off equipment, supplies, spare parts and experiments.

The crew undocked from the station on July 19, and landed two days later at the Kennedy Space Center. Illuminated by spotlights in the pre-dawn darkness, the orbiter cut a ghostly figure as it touched down at 5:57 a.m. and rolled to a stop for the final time. It was a fitting end for a mighty spaceship.

Space Shuttle Atlantis STS35 Night Landing

Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-35 Night Landing

THE NUMBERS
Total miles traveled: 131,220,631
Total time in space: 320 days
Total flights: 33
Total crew members: 211
Mir dockings: 7
International Space Station dockings: 13
Satellites deployed: 14

Links for Space Shuttle Atlantis

NASA Space Shuttle Website

Atlantis Space Shuttle Fact Sheet

 

 

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