STS-132 Atlantis 14/5/10

ynotdu

Both spacecrafts are now fully sealed preparing for undocking.
Some pics of the traditional farewell&hatch closing ceremony.not usually posted in the STS threads but this one is diffrient.!




The ceremony took place in in the quest module,between it and Atlantis there is a tube with a hatch,one on the rear of quest and of course one on Atlantis.all three are closed now and leak checks are being performed.

Beeker

Looks like I will miss the undocking this evening:( But hope to get online again later tonight. Good chance I will not be on-line much over the next few days so trusting ynotdu, LL and others will hold the fort in recording the closing history of Atlantis:)

Beeker

Stunning image of Atlantis and the ISS passing in fronth of the Sun before docking in May 16.:)

ynotdu

Beeker WOW to those Sun pics,Keeping the best pics till last eh?:)
sounding like You picked a good undocking&flyaround to miss.main lights on the docking assembly failed,undocking is to be in orbital nightime and bad Com is expected for most of it:(. Have started this about 12 minutes before undocking to which both have a GO.LL is on the mitch as well! TRAITORS!!

I will post the best from our friends on NSF.com.but it is all being recorded so no doubt better pictures and video will be available over the next couple of days.

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undocking began right on the money at 16.22
flyaround began at a distance of 450 feet,This is a view of the entire ISS with the shadow of Atlantis to be seen on top right Solar panel


and Atlantis from the ISS

ynotdu

In daylight passing over the Coast of Mexico then much of north America(including texas;))






ISS Camera finds Atlantis:

ynotdu

heading towards below southern tip of Ireland Ireland,then parts of England,Coasts of Spain/Italy then Libyia.






as i type the first seperation burn is complete with another one due at aprox 18.00.

and there endeth the lesson!

lord lucan

Missed the undocking unfortunately. Should,fingers crossed,be here for landing on Wednesday. Thanks for the pics Ynotdu.:)

12april1981

http://jnbrown.webs.com/

Hi Everyone
Just got back home this afternoon,and was so anxious to forward this link to you all.This is a very good friend of mine who has the luck of been allowed out to the pad to set up cameras just 700 ft from The Pad.Iam going to post a more detailed account of our trip before landing but in the meantime.......Enjoy !!!!!!!!

lord lucan

12april1981 wrote: »

http://jnbrown.webs.com/

Hi Everyone
Just got back home this afternoon,and was so anxious to forward this link to you all.This is a very good friend of mine who has the luck of been allowed out to the pad to set up cameras just 700 ft from The Pad.Iam going to post a more detailed account of our trip before landing but in the meantime.......Enjoy !!!!!!!!

Thanks for the link,some amazing pics there!:)

Equally scary is that most of the photographers mentioned are familiar to me through the various websites. I especially love Ben Cooper and Steve Clarks stuff on Spaceflightnow.com. Good to see how it's all put together.:)

lord lucan

Soichi with another great shot as Atlantis departs.

http://twitpic.com/1qhnvw

Beeker

12april1981 wrote: »

http://jnbrown.webs.com/

Hi Everyone
Just got back home this afternoon,and was so anxious to forward this link to you all.This is a very good friend of mine who has the luck of been allowed out to the pad to set up cameras just 700 ft from The Pad.Iam going to post a more detailed account of our trip before landing but in the meantime.......Enjoy !!!!!!!!

Great stuff there! thanks for the link. Like LL the names are familiar from other sites. Thanks again:)

ynotdu

Astronauts Michael Good (left) and Garrett Reisman look through the aft flight deck windows of space shuttle Atlantis during the mission’s third spacewalk. During the spacewalk, Good and Reisman completed the installation of the final two of the six new batteries for the B side of the port 6 solar array. In addition, the astronauts installed a backup ammonia jumper cable between the port 4 and 5 trusses of the station and transferred a power and data grapple fixture from the shuttle to the station.

ynotdu

and in the ever continuing efforts to fully document the STS-132 mission,here is a synopsis of todays events{i copy&paste them rather than link them as the NASA info page changes all the time and a link would just be dead for future reference}
Latest Space Shuttle News

Mon, 24 May 2010 05:00:49 GMT On Tuesday, the STS-132 crew will begin checking the shuttle's flight control surfaces and reaction control system. They also will perform cabin stowage activities in preparation for a Wednesday landing at Kennedy Space Center scheduled for 8:48.

the 08.48 is EDT five hours to be added in Ireland,also it is the first landing opportunity and may not get a 'GO' if weather at KSC is unfavourable,anybody interested should listen in at about 12.18 PM onwards Irish time to see if Atlantis gets a GO for the de-orbit burn

The de-orbit burn takes place just about an hour before a planned landing time once the 'GO' is given.

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[*]Inspection Complete

Mon, 24 May 2010 01:25:56 PM UTC+0100

Space shuttle Atlantis' crew completed today's inspection of the shuttle's thermal protection system at 8:17 a.m. EDT. The crew began the inspection early. They used the 50-foot-long Orbiter Boom Sensor System to conduct a high fidelity, three-dimensional scan of areas of the shuttle that experience the highest heating during entry - the wing leading edges and nose cap.

Managers and engineers in Mission Control will review the data today and tomorrow to validate the heat shield's integrity. The crew is maneuvering the arm for stowage in Atlantis' payload bay.

lord lucan

Soichi strikes again:http://twitpic.com/1qovtz

ynotdu

lord lucan wrote: »

Soichi strikes again:http://twitpic.com/1qovtz

He better stop striking by June 1st LL,or he will miss his ride home on Soyuz:eek:(may'be that's his cunning plan?;))
He seems to have been aboard the ISS since 2007!:)
His photo's have been great and fair play to him that on the final ISS/STS news conference when he said to the effect "i just snap the pics,it is the computer whizz's that allows Me to get the credit":)

lord lucan

ynotdu wrote: »

He better stop striking by June 1st LL,or he will miss his ride home on Soyuz:eek:(may'be that's his cunning plan?;))
He seems to have been aboard the ISS since 2007!:)
His photo's have been great and fair play to him that on the final ISS/STS news conference when he said to the effect "i just snap the pics,it is the computer whizz's that allows Me to get the credit":)

Gonna miss his Twitter updates when he heads home. I reckon he was taking loads of pics of Atlantis because he was jealous. Much nicer ride home on Atlantis than a 'little Soyuz'.:)

ynotdu

lord lucan wrote: »

Gonna miss his Twitter updates when he heads home. I reckon he was taking loads of pics of Atlantis because he was jealous. Much nicer ride home on Atlantis than a 'little Soyuz'.:)

Yar Mot loves My "little Soyuz":p

I am forced into watching and waiting for the 'Launch' of the baby blue tits on the Mooneycam as part of My withdrawl process now:(

lord lucan

ynotdu wrote: »

Yar Mot loves My "little Soyuz":p

Yor Ma' is always "Go for Launch".:pac:

ynotdu

lord lucan wrote: »

Yor Ma' is always "Go for Launch".:pac:

She is on her way to You right now,say your prayers:eek:

eilejh

ynotdu wrote: »

In daylight passing over the Coast of Mexico then much of north America(including texas;))






ISS Camera finds Atlantis:

Ynot-you just blew this Texan away. You could get a fortune for that one pic over Texas for sure! I will not send it to anyone-shhh! Hope you get rich with it ha ha!

lord lucan

Here's one for you eilejh,the Alamo as seen from the ISS.

http://twitpic.com/1okysq

lord lucan

And Houston at night:http://twitpic.com/15289c/full

and daytime:http://twitpic.com/14t572/full

ynotdu

lord lucan wrote: »

And Houston at night:http://twitpic.com/15289c/full

and daytime:http://twitpic.com/14t572/full

Houston LL I've "had a problem" trying to view that daylight one!;)

eilejh

ynotdu wrote: »

Houston LL I've "had a problem" trying to view that daylight one!;)

That looks like daylight H-town to me! An uncivilized big circle of freeways and toll roads.......but no-one in Texas figures it out like someone from Houston. Houston rocks!

eilejh

lord lucan wrote: »

And Houston at night:http://twitpic.com/15289c/full

and daytime:http://twitpic.com/14t572/full

The nightime photo says it all.....

eilejh

Now I want a poster of the nighttime Houston photo lol...been staring at it and listening to Thin Lizzy and monitoring the weather boards all at the same time. Just waiting for 'Coast To Coast' to come on the radio etc...
Atlantis on her way home. Godspeed. God bless you all.

lord lucan

This is brilliant.

lord lucan

And on a more humorous note:

lord lucan

I was doing a bit of thinking today about the remainder of the programme. I reckon this is Atlantis' last flight. My reasoning being that even if STS-135 got a green light for Atlantis that would mean you'd have Atlantis' crew in the OPF turning her around after this flight and then effectively scratching for many months. They've hinted that STS-133 will slip to late november. With that i reckon they could get Discovery home,turned around and ready for LON for STS-134 at some stage early next year. Assuming STS-134 gets away with no problems they could then use Discovery for STS-135 in the summer of next year.

In that scenario Atlantis returns home this week and is effectively safed and readied for a museum by her OPF crew and then they'd be let go in late summer sometime. That'd leave Discovery and Endeavour to see out the programme.

That's how i see it panning out. They don't need Atlantis as LON for either of the remaining flights so they'll figure why keep her and all the staff on the payroll when there's no need. I don't expect we'll hear anything about this for a while yet,the next launch is a long time away now.

ynotdu

A very short mission status press conference earlior.
present plan is to attempt only to land at ksc weather permitting Wednesdy and Thursday.
Friday is the must land somewhere day.(slight provisor they an survive until Saturday,but that NEVER happens)

They gave a 50-50 chance of landing at KSC Wednesday{Edwards also in danger of rain/cloud

better chance of good Weather at both on Thursday.

They due to experiance would rule nothing in or out about the plans if Weather updates show late changes to KSC,Edwards or oversea's emergency landing sights possibly getting worse conditions before Friday.

Confirmed for Wednesday are the planned de-orbit burn times as follows(sometimes they leave it to just a couple of minutes before the de-orbit burn times to give a GO/no GO}

first de-orbit burn: 12.41 PM Irish time:

Landing: 1.48 PM Irish time.

Second de-orbit burn: 2.17 PM Irish time:

Landing: 3.23 PM Irish time.

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eilejh: What Thin Lizzy song were You listening to? the one that contains 'as I was Flying marching over Lyric one?:)

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LL i agree with all Your thoughts above,just from a spectators point of view,it is all a bit messy now,not knowing if this or any of the remaining two will be the final one to fly,or if there will be a 135.
I was hoping for a bit more style and dignity to the end of it all.:(