Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:18:04 AM CDT

At 5:57 a.m. EDT, space shuttle Atlantis landed for the final time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after 200 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,284,862 miles on STS-135.

It was the 25th night landing, the 78th landing at Kennedy and the133rd landing in shuttle history.

Atlantis’ main gear touched down at 5:57:00 a.m. followed by the nose gear at 5:57:20 and wheels stop at 5:57:54 a.m. At wheels stop, the mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 28 minutes and 50 seconds.

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:08:07 GMT

Space shuttle Atlantis’ crew is wrapping up final preparations for its planned landing at 5:56:58 a.m. EDT Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew stowed the Ku-Band antenna, used for high-data rate communications and television from space, at 11:34 a.m. and will go to sleep at 1:29 p.m.

Mission managers have cleared Atlantis’ heat shield for entry after reviewing results of the “late inspection” survey of the shuttle’s reinforced carbon carbon.

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:36:26 AM CDT

The STS-135 crew members spent Wednesday getting themselves and space shuttle Atlantis ready for the return home. They practiced landings on a laptop application, performed the flight control system checkout and checked out the reaction control system thrusters. All checked out well.

HOUSTON -- After space shuttle Atlantis' scheduled landing Thursday, July 21, a welcome home ceremony for the STS-135 astronauts is planned for Friday, July 22. Journalists and the public are invited to attend the 4 p.m. CDT event at Ellington Field's NASA Hangar 990. Gates to Ellington Field will open at 3:30 p.m.

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:41:08 AM CDT

Expedition 28 spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan are using the new In Suit Light Exercise (ISLE) protocol to prepare for today’s excursion, a technique first used on shuttle mission STS-134. Rather than “camping out” in the Quest Airlock at low air pressure last night, the pair waited until this morning to breathe pure oxygen through air masks for an hour as the air pressure inside Quest is lowered to 10.2 pounds per square inch.

After many delays due to weather, the Space Ship Atlantis launched Friday morning. It's going to be the final flight in the space shuttle program. The moment was a difficult one for many linked to the program, but concluding this section will open new ones in NASA's exploration of the cosmos. Source for this article - Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on its final mission by Newsytype.com.

A lot of delays

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:51:41 AM CDT

Piloting the Canadarm2 from the robotic workstation in the International Space Station’s cupola, astronauts Doug Hurley and Sandy Magnus grabbed the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module at 5:16 a.m. EDT. They lifted it out of shuttle Atlantis’ cargo bay at 5:47 a.m. and installed it on the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony node at 6:46 a.m.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA managers will hold a news conference on Tuesday, June 28, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss the status of the final space shuttle launch.

HOUSTON -- NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston has scheduled briefings, interview opportunities and demonstrations to highlight the final space shuttle mission, targeted to launch on July 8.

On June 30, NASA will hold news media briefings to preview the STS-135 mission and a news conference with the shuttle crew: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. NASA Television and the agency's website will carry the news briefings live.

Schedules are showing the External Tank camera – which will ride with Atlantis’ ET-138 – is to be modified – allowing it to beam back video of the tank’s disintegration after parting ways with the orbiter at MECO (Main Engine Cut Off). Meanwhile, STS-135′s pad flow now includes the replacement of the left outboard Window Contamination Control (WCCS) desiccant tubing.