Emotional final docking for NASA shuttle Atlantis
Source: Agencies |
July 11, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
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IN a flight full of emotion, Atlantis made the final docking in shuttle history yesterday, pulling up at the International Space Station with a year's worth of supplies.
The station's naval bell chimed a salute as Atlantis docked 386 kilometers above the Pacific.
"Atlantis arriving," called out space station astronaut Ronald Garan Jr. "Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time."
"And it's great to be here," replied shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson.
It's the final docking to a space station ever by a NASA shuttle. Atlantis is being retired after this flight, the last of the 30-year shuttle program.
Excitement grew throughout the morning - in orbit and at Mission Control - as the kilometers melted between the two spacecraft with every circling of Earth. Every landmark of this final two-week shuttle mission is being savored.
Mission Control's lead flight director, Kwatsi Alibaruho, declared "this is it" as he gave the OK for the historic linkup.
This was the 46th docking by a space shuttle to a space station.
Nine of those were to Russia's Mir station back in the mid-1990s, with Atlantis making the very first. The US and Russia built on that sometimes precarious experience to create, along with a dozen other nations, the world's largest spacecraft ever: the permanently inhabited, finally completed, 12 1/2 year-old International Space Station.
This time, Atlantis is delivering more than 4 tons of food, clothes and other space station provisions - an entire year's worth, in fact, to keep the complex going in the looming post-shuttle era.
Ferguson was at the controls as Atlantis drew closer, leading the smallest astronaut crew in decades.
Only four are flying aboard Atlantis, as NASA kept the crew to a minimum in case of an emergency. In the event that Atlantis was seriously damaged, the shuttle astronauts would need to move into the space station and rely on Russian Soyuz capsules to get back home.
The station's naval bell chimed a salute as Atlantis docked 386 kilometers above the Pacific.
"Atlantis arriving," called out space station astronaut Ronald Garan Jr. "Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time."
"And it's great to be here," replied shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson.
It's the final docking to a space station ever by a NASA shuttle. Atlantis is being retired after this flight, the last of the 30-year shuttle program.
Excitement grew throughout the morning - in orbit and at Mission Control - as the kilometers melted between the two spacecraft with every circling of Earth. Every landmark of this final two-week shuttle mission is being savored.
Mission Control's lead flight director, Kwatsi Alibaruho, declared "this is it" as he gave the OK for the historic linkup.
This was the 46th docking by a space shuttle to a space station.
Nine of those were to Russia's Mir station back in the mid-1990s, with Atlantis making the very first. The US and Russia built on that sometimes precarious experience to create, along with a dozen other nations, the world's largest spacecraft ever: the permanently inhabited, finally completed, 12 1/2 year-old International Space Station.
This time, Atlantis is delivering more than 4 tons of food, clothes and other space station provisions - an entire year's worth, in fact, to keep the complex going in the looming post-shuttle era.
Ferguson was at the controls as Atlantis drew closer, leading the smallest astronaut crew in decades.
Only four are flying aboard Atlantis, as NASA kept the crew to a minimum in case of an emergency. In the event that Atlantis was seriously damaged, the shuttle astronauts would need to move into the space station and rely on Russian Soyuz capsules to get back home.
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