Credit: NASA/Carla Thomas

On 22 June 2006, Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base, California, ending a successful two-week emission to the International Space Station (ISS). With Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Lee Archambault at the controls, Atlantis touched down at 7:49 pm. GMT.

The landing was scheduled to be at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, on 21 June, but bad weather delayed the landing and changed its location.

The challenges posed during the mission, designated STS-117, are invaluable learning experiences that will help NASA prepare for future exploration, William Gerstenmaier, NASA's Associate Administrator for space operations, explained at a post-landing press conference.

"My hat is off to the team that really pulled off an awesome mission," he said.

The astronauts are set to return to their homebase, Johnson Space Center in Houston, on 23 June 2006.

According to Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach, Atlantis may be returned to KSC within a week. Then, the orbiter will immediately begin processing for a new mission, STS-122, scheduled for launch late this year.

Atlantis was launched on 8 June and arrived at the ISS on 10 June. The crewmembers quickly began operation to install the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss structure to the outpost and retracted a set of arrays on the Port 6 (P6) truss. The (S3/S4) contains a new set of solar arrays that raises ISS's power-generation capabilities. The P6 will be relocated during a future mission.

Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester, John “Danny” Olivas, Jim Reilly and Steven Swanson conducted a total of four spacewalks to activate the S3/S4 and to retract the P6 arrays. During the third spacewalk, Olivas repaired a damaged thermal blanket on the left orbital maneuvering system pod.

Astronaut Suni Williams returned with the Atlantis crew. During her prolonged mission aboard the ISS, she broke the record of the longest spaceflight by a woman early on the morning of 16 June. When Atlantis landed, she had accumulated 194 days, 18 hours and 58 minutes in spaceflight. The previous record, 188 days, 4 hours, was set by NASA's astronaut Dr. Shannon Lucid.

Although this was Sunni's first spaceflight, she also achieved the record of the longest cumulative spacewalking time of a woman. During Expedition 14, she performed 4 spacewalks, lasting 29 hours, 17 minutes.

STS-117 is the 118th space shuttle mission and 21st mission to visit the space station. The shuttle's next mission, STS-118, is slated to launch in August.

Further Reading

NASA

www.nasa.gov/

Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem

Senior Astronomy Specialist