Tuesday July 26, 2011
Volume CXXXI Issue 5
Mission Complete
Richard Weakley Photo Editor
“Mission complete, Houston. After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. It’s come to a final stop.” Those were the words radioed to Mission Control in Houston by STS-135 Commander Christopher Ferguson after landing and wheel stop of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the Kennedy Space Center’s runway 15 at 5:57 a.m. EDT concluding the 12 day long International Space
Station (ISS) assembly flight. Astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore acknowledged the completion of the mission from Mission Control in Houston. “We copy your wheels stopped, and we’ll take this opportunity to congratulate you, Atlantis, as well as the thousands of passionate individuals across this great, space-faring nation who truly empower this incredible spacecraft, which for three decades has inspired millions around the globe.” STS-135 was the 37th and final ISS assembly mission bringing the orbiting complex to one hundred percent com-
pletion of pressurized volume weighing in at 901,745 pounds. The crew of Atlantis brought 30,576 pounds of hardware to the ISS. The nearly flawless execution of the STS-135 mission by the ‘Final Four’ space shuttle astronauts concluded the 30 year long space shuttle program. Since the first shuttle flight in the 1981, the five orbiters have a combined total of 542,398,878 miles in space over 135 missions carrying 355 individuals. Of the 133 landings, 78 landings have been at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 54 at Edwards Air
Force Base in California and one landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The space shuttle program has had a storied history of triumphs and successes. The space shuttle has exceeded its design expectations by surpassing the original mission of launching, repairing and recovering satellites by acting as an orbiting science laboratory with Spacelab, assembly platform for the ISS and delivery vehicle for supplies and crew members to the ISS and MIR space stations. Highlights also include Atlantis launching the Galileo spacecraft in 1989 to
study Jupiter and completing Hubble Servicing Mission 4 in 2009, the last mission to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. The space shuttle program has also had its dark times through which the many dedicated men and women at NASA and its contractors have persevered through to continue to make the Space Shuttle a shining beacon of science, technology and space exploration. The fourteen shuttle crewmembers that lost their lives in the Challenger and Columbia disasters will always be remembered for their bravery and con-
tributions to the space shuttle program. Today, several space vehicles are being designed by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX to possibly fill the role of lofting astronauts into Earth orbit and beyond. No matter which design is chosen, the space shuttle will always have its place in history. In the words of Commander Ferguson, “The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it’s changed the way we view our universe. There are a lot of emotions today, but one thing is indisputable -- America’s not going to stop exploring.”
RICHARD WEAKLEY/AVION
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